April 15 Tango

Photo: Cheryl Reynolds

Last night Worth A Dam kept an eye on our beavers while all the world was watching brightly colored explosions and some of its inhabitants were making rather noisy explosions of their own. After the first big bang at the bridge the bi-yearling seemed to make a decision that he wasn’t going over that dam until things got quieter. He carried large branches into the lodge so the kits would feed inside and we didn’t see much of them for the duration of the night. At one point he sat motionless in the water, watching the bank to see if there was trouble. Whale-watchers call that behavior ‘logging’ but we had never seen it in our beavers. Clearly he knew tonight was different.

Necropsy results received from UC Davis via Lindsay last night indicate the following conditions present in Mom beaver:

1. Meningoencephalitis, (inflammation of the layers protecting the brain and the brain), associated with amoeba or protozoans
2. Pneumonia
3. Malocclusion and secondary gingivitis, (due to the broken upper tooth)
4. Conjunctivitis grossly, but only mild to moderate.inflammation on histology

Conversations with our vet friends have suggested that the infections could all have been triggered by the broken tooth and spread from there. We will keep asking and trying to understand the sequence. For now it means that she was dealing with a host of problems, and we are again awed that she was able to bring three healthy kits into the world.

When we left last night at 11 things had calmed down and the steady stream of cars had cleared from downtown. Two cautious kits made their silent paddle around the pond to get branches on their own. All the appreciative people, all the families with children, all the defiant teens and all the angry drunks went homeward. We wished the beavers a happy independence day and left them to their privacy.

If seven maids with seven mops
Swept it for half a year.
Do you suppose,” the Walrus said,
“That they could get it clear?”
“I doubt it,” said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.

Lewis Carrol

I haven’t posted about the trauma in the gulf lately not because it isn’t ongoing, and not because it isn’t continually horrific beyond anything we can possibly imagine but because we’ve had a singular focus lately for obvious reasons. This video caught my attention today and just had to be posted. Dr. Pincetich used to work for SPAWN. I tracked him down last year and we exhanged information about the positive relationship between beavers and salmon. He even invited me to come to a watershed training he was doing at Samuel Taylor and say a few words about beavers. SPAWN will be at the beaver festival this year, but Dr. Pincetich has moved onto to studying turtles. Wow, some timing. He has pretty alarming things to say about Corexit. I particularly like his language about ‘turning a two dimensional problem into a three dimensional problem.’

Photo: Cheryl Reynolds

Taken before mom’s death, but during her illness, this photo shows our two larger kits exploring the dam and foraging for food. It is an adorable glimpse of their “buddy system” as they venture farther a field (and closer to Cheryl’s camera) than they have ever gone. Since mom’s death and their “adoption” by the bi-yearling, they are much more cautious because they have the luxury of caution. They’re also waking up later which means their tummies are fuller and they are probably being fed in the lodge. We saw the first kit at 6 on Saturday night, but not until 8 on Sunday.

These two seem to come in tandem and are nearly the same size. A smaller kit usually comes on its own and is much less skilled at swimming and breaking off branches, let alone diving. That’s the one that rode on mom’s back on the June 13th movie. The bi-yearling was present last night, bringing branches in the lodge before going for his “alone time” over the dam. Jon followed him to see what he was doing but he slipped off into the scrape near the secondary dam. It is likely that he is marking the territory to keep other beavers away and checking for trouble. He’s not gone long enough to be feeding and there’s plenty to eat closer to home in the annex.

Dad hasn’t been seen the last few nights, and I got an email from Sarah Summerville of the Unexpected Wildlife Refuge that might explain that.

In Dorothy Richards’ (and our Hope Sawyer Buyukmihci’s) book Beaversprite, she documented seeing “grief” in her beavers at the loss of a mate or kitten. It sounds like the kittens are reverting to younger behavior, and the yearling is probably like a new mother, too overwhelmed and busy to grieve. How is dad doing? Is he business as usual, or is he absent? She documented the grieving parents staying in the lodge and not eating for several days.

I can’t imagine beaver couples are passionate about their mates, but they are certainly used to them and spend hours side by side in the lodge or working on the dam and that loss could certainly be felt. We’ll keep watch and see what’s up with dad. At the moment I’d like another adult in the pond to keep an eye on the kits when the bi-yearling goes foraging. We are reluctant to leave until he comes back after his little “alone time”, but we can’t be beaver-sitters forever.

I draw the line at working on the dam. They’re just going to have to do that themselves.