Out For A Swim

Every night

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, kits July 11, 2010

A sleek steady beaver swims close enough to eye the people on the shore, does some brief nuzzling of a kit. gives a beaver-back ride or brings a branch, and slowly makes his or her way over the dam for some alone time. Most nights we lose sight of the two year old somewhere around the first scrape, where sneaky swimming becomes their habit. We believe they may be scent marking near the damlet, but we can’t know for sure. I have no idea what happens if a passing beaver takes him/her up on their offer. Will they move in or move on?

We know the rule is one breeding pair per colony. So we assume dad is also leaving scent marks for potentials. If the two year old gets lucky first, evolution would argue that dad would ‘retire’, although I have never read about that happening. At least two beaver experts have mentioned the possibility that Dad might breed with the two year old, if its a female, but that’s a lot to wrap our heads around. Go read Hope Ryden’s Lily pond which has a long account about why it isn’t a genetic problem if you’re interested. Sharon Brown of BWW described a widowed father beaver that was rebuffed by a yearling with an ‘I don’t think so’ and eventually found another partner. I think if the two year old is clearly working on attracting a mate, its a pretty good indication that its a boy, and that complicated issue won’t even come up.

Cheryl took this photo on Friday night. We have taken to calling the two year-old GQ (even though we can’t know the gender) because it is always so meticulously groomed and so much sleeker than Dad. GQ is not the most gentle of parents. He’s a little gruff with the kits and awkward at times. The other night he gave one of the kits such a scolding for going over the dam that no one has dared approach it for days. When you think about it, the two year-old hasn’t been around children before. Our last yearlings had new kits in the lodge with them when they were just a year old. But since our 2009 kits died he never got practice being with youngsters until now. It’s fun to watch him learn.

Photo: Cheryl Reynolds

This is clearly the “Gloria Swanson Moment” for beavers….

Montana Zoobeavers

heidi08 kits July 6, 2010

BILLINGS – This week ZooMontana welcomes two more animals to its family. Zoo keepers are calling these two month old beavers “Xena” and “Hercules,” although, they tell us they may be holding a contest to find official names for the babies. Story is the beavers were orphaned when their mother died in a dam building accident. The animals are in quarantine right now, but will be debuted for the public at Zoo-Fari on July 24

kulr8

A Dam-building accident? Really? Was mom using a crane to lift heavy steel-girders into place and one just slipped and suddenly orphaned her children? Did she accidentally fall on a long sharpened branch and impale herself? Or maybe there was a washout and she drowned? Hmm. I bet this is this the kind of ‘dam accident’ where the property owners hated beavers, destroyed the dam, and waited until they came to fix it that night before shooting everything furry they could see. The exterminating-hero(es) didn’t realize there were kits in the lodge until they came out whining and hungry. I guess that’s a kind of accident. I was thinking about the zoo’s assumption that these were ‘orphans’ given the fact our dad and 2-year old are caring for the kits now, but then I realized that the accident-causer(s) probably shot enough beavers to be certain they were ‘orphans’.

Ahhh, reminds me of the old favorite tune; “I still miss you honey, but my aim is getting better!”

Good luck, Montana. Hey, I have an idea. Why not use the interest in these adorable fuzzballs to teach visitors about the value of beaver in the watershed and to educate about the solutions to common beaver problems? Wouldn’t that be a great way to honor your ‘orphans’? Meanwhile, our logo designer, Kiriko Moth, offers this lovely update to our logo in mom’s honor. It;s very fitting, don’t you think?

Helping Hand

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, kits July 4, 2010

Photo: Cheryl Reynolds

How old are our three kits? The truth is we can’t be sure. The first was seen on June 9th and we assumed it was about 4 weeks old. Sharon Brown of Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife thinks more like 6, since kits don’t come out of the lodge on their own until they can dive, and they can’t do that until 6 weeks. Our kits were so small this year, and mom was in such poor health, that we think they might have emerged early to feed. That places them somewhere around 9-10 weeks old. Kits stop nursing around 8 weeks, and their digestion is ready for the big job of feeding entirely on leaves and bark.

Worth A Dam made the decision to keep easy food available for our three when mom’s health began to decline. Since her death we have been dropping cottonwood and willow at the dam site to allow them easy access to branches. This lets them feed and fatten naturally, while practicing chewing and tugging and figuring out just how to swim with three feet of willowy goodness in your paws. Our decision to supplemental feed has been reported on the news and in the press. It is not a secret and it should not be controversial. Here is an example of how supplemental feeding works when humans aren’t involved.

I took this photo in October of 2007. It shows one of our 4 first kits feeding on a felled willow tree in the annex behind the lodge. This is beaver-generated supplmental feeding. Dad brought down this tree so that four youngsters would have easy eating close to home, and could practice chewing and dragging branches on their own. The kits initial feeding consisted of branches brought by the parents into the lodge, branches carefully laid in the water, or low hanging willow and blackberry the kits could snatch for themselves. We have seen all three kits taking food from the banks as well.

This year Worth A Dam made the decision to paint the trees around the lodge with sand to make them less attractive food. Our concern was that the lodge remain shaded and protected from human interference. It has worked in keeping trees but it means there are fewer “training trees” for dad to take down in the immediate area. We will continue to supply branches for another two weeks at least. When the kits get a little bigger I’m sure Dad will try out the lovely new willow we planted in the annex. Have you looked at it lately? It’s huge!

Out of the playpen…

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, kits July 1, 2010

Last night there was the usual gathering of beaver supporters and interested folk at the dam. Familiar faces came because their hearts were saddened by the news of mom’s death, and had their hearts expanded by the cheerful antics of three healthy beaver kits. The bi-yearling came and did his parental circle of the dam, going over to do some mudding on the downstream side before returning to bring branches into the lodge. A turtle sat on his customary place on the flow pipe and a green heron fed from the filter upstream.

We were feeling pretty calm and settled with things when the yearling did a pass with a kit and seemed eager to go over the dam. After hesitating two or three times, he allowed the kit to ride on his shoulders and just SWOOPED him over the gap into the second pond. Kit Overboard! The wide world opened up for our hero. Suddenly the boundaries of their little world had dissolved. That kit paddled around the second pond a bit, sat on the pipe of the flow device and then decided that was quite enough exploration for one day, thank you very much.

His artless return is captured on the footage below. Clearly his sudden spasm of terror in midreturn is the best proof I have ever seen of beaver imagination. Nothing was chasing him. No loud noise caused his alarm. He just suddenly realized where the @#*%$ he was and it scared the beaver stuffing out of him.

Of course, once he had made the trip to the great beyond, his brother wanted to try it to. No longer was the primary dam a guardrail to keep all the baby chicks in the nest. Now it was a bridge to freedom. Like teenagers with new drivers licenses they popped over the dam just to show they could while the rest of us sat like the parents of teenagers with new drivers licenses and tried not to panic.

It’s a big world, and they need to explore it. (Sniff.)

Getting back to normal

heidi08 Beaver Behavior June 30, 2010

Some compassionate downtown workers who have had a ringside seat for this entire ‘epic tail’ have expressed their affection for our missing matriarch. They asked for no credit but have left hearts onsite if you wish to add your sentiments. Also check out the support from our neighbor at the mayor of claycord.

After a week of change and trauma, the beaver family seems to be getting back into a routine. All three kits were seen again last night, as well as Dad and Yearling. There was swimming, feeding and push-matches to pursue, the last is an excellent sign that our young beavers are no longer worried about who’s taking care of them or where their next meal is coming from and are finally able to address the more important questions: which kit is stronger.

Photo: Cheryl Reynolds

Human lives are getting a little more normal also, as beaver supporters settle into the routines of this “new family” and begin to relax that it can survive on its own. The beavers were the topic of conversation far and wee yesterday, in law firms in the city and weirdly enough on the Orange County Craig’s list forum. (?) The very best has to be the touching headline released by KTVU, reading:

UPDATE: Father Of Martinez Beavers Returns, Feeding Kits

Gosh don’t you wish that there were updates like that on every beaver colony around the nation? Maybe a “beaver beat” for reporters? At its basic level the beaver story is essentially the story of a family, so I guess the headline is the same as something like “Father feared to be dead in plane crash returns home for dinner”. The moral of the story: children will be cared for and life will go on.

I heard from Leonard and Lois this morning from SURCP. They were extending their condolences at mom’s death and reassuring us that the kits would manage with the two year old. They offered this startling proof,

So sorry to hear about mother beaver, the kits should be old enough to
feed and it’s amazing how the two year olds can take over parenting.
We had a pair of beavers eaten by a mountain lion yet the one year old and
the kit have survived on their own.
Once again our condolences.

Mountain lions eating mom and dad! (shudder) I guess it could be much much worse, but that’s probably always true so we shouldn’t be surprised. In the mean time we’ll be out again tonight, watching our newly stabilized family show off their three youngest beaver exhibits. If you can get away, you should come too.