“Always an Adventure, Up on Beaver Creek”

Muskrat APB

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Educational, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers August 14, 2013

Where have all our muskrats gone? I haven’t seen one in a year. Either some mink is very happy or something has changed about the beaver pond hospitality, because their little cousin hasn’t shown his face in ages. It makes me a little worried that there’s some kind of rat poison or something taking them out – but I still see rats from time to time so you would think I’d still see muskrats too.

This study looked at factors determining where muskrats were and explored several variables in the habitat. Only one was significant.

A Mann-Whitney u-test showed that ponds with> 30 % vegetation within 10m of shoreline have muskrats.

Well, we definitely have plenty of blackberry and arundo to hide them in. The beavers eat our willow and the city secret scrapers trim away any new vegetion-but they still have plenty of cover. Either they’re there and we’re just not seeing them or something is eating them. Python? Here’s a very nice article on the muskrat population going down when mink took over the area in Poland. Muskrats are happy in saltwater so increased tidal influence isn’t responsible. This might be a mystery that takes a while to solve. In the meantime this pamphlet from Friends of the Rio Grande Nature Centure in New Mexico is a lovely look at muskrats and you should check it out. Let us know right away if you see any tailed wonders!

One more treasure. Some of you may remember that back in the fall Moses rescued an injured kingfisher at the primary dam and I took it to Linsay Wildlife Hospital. It received many mandible surgeries but was never able to recover and was eventually entuanized. We’ve been one kingfisher short ever since. Which makes this lovely release from International Bird Rescue all that more welcome.

These photos were taken Monday night when our own Cheryl Reynolds invited Worth A Dam’s Lory Bruno and her grandson Gianni to the dam site to release a kingfisher IBR had rehabilitated. Enjoy this beautiful look at freedom, and remember to look for our newbie when you are at the beaver dam and here that chattering cry overhead.

Blame the Beavers: Part Infinitum

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Who's Killing Beavers Now? September 10, 2010

Poland has had massive flooding, rains, levee failure and deaths. The minister of the interior knows JUST who to blame.

Is the beaver “the greatest enemy of the flood defences”? According to Jerzy Miller, Polish minister of the interior, there is no doubt. “They live everywhere along the levees on the Wisła River and cause a lot of damage to them,” the Daily Telegraphcited. Since torrential rain caused rivers to swell beyond emergency levels in southern Poland almost two weeks ago, the surge has spread further to the regions of Wrocław and Warsaw.

Ahhh the beaver-levee conundrum! What could be more alarming than collapsed water walls because of beaver burrowing! We’re terrified of it in the Delta, so much so that in some parts of the state there is an official movement to replace the word “boo” with the word “beaver”.

By gnawing through dykes, digging tunnels in dams and thus sapping protective barriers from the inside, beavers caused further flooding. So far, the flood claimed 16 victims and around 4,000 people had to be evacuated. Overall, about 20,000 people were affected by the deluge.

Beavers gnawing through dykes? Seriously? Okay, middleschool sniggers aside, aren’t dykes made out of dirt? Are you really saying the beavers chew dirt? I’ll grant you beavers are excellent diggers, so maybe that’s what you mean. You should probably read the paper at the written by biologist Skip Lisle about the limited extent to which beavers tunnel. They aren’t coal miners. You know of course that most damage to dams is done by muskrats, right? Which far outnumber the beaver population in your country? And that muskrats are faster breeders and especially like to tunnel along levees?

Never mind. I’m sure you’ve thought this through.

During the course of the catastrophe, local governments increased the hunting quota on the apparently unconcerned beaver to mitigate the problem. Hitherto protected by the state, the Castor fiber (European beaver) seems to have lost its environmental immunity in Polish inshore waters.

Well there you have it. No reason to fix a problem by better planning or environmental management. Just kill some beavers that you’ve been protecting for a hundred years. Great solution! And nice blame shifting. I see a promotion in your future.

Yet, blaming and preying on the beaver appears, once again, to be a way of dealing with the unforeseen consequences of human actions. It is not the first time that Poland experienced such a devastating flood. In 1997, when the country was hit by the most severe deluge in recent history, 54 people died, more than 150,000 people were evacuated and the overall damages accounted for billions of euros. The question remains, what measures have been taken to prevent and deal with such emergencies?

Seven Maids Update:

Well it looks like the top kill isn’t working, although BP will tell us more when they’re good and ready thank you very much. In the mean time you should definitely read the article in today’s New York Times about what’s being found below the surface.

Friday Night At the Dam…

heidi08 New Species August 22, 2009

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=ELGZCww0ikI]

Beaver friend GTK let me know this was accidentally classified as “private” which has now been changed. Sorry about that! Last night we sat in unbeavered silence until nearly eight O’Clock, when all at once this little muskrat made an appearance, immediately followed by the low over-the-dam flight of two green herons and then voila! A beaver! I was interested in how he’d greet his muskrat neighbor, so I had the camera pointing to the right place! That’s us giggling in the background.