When I was a little girl, we had a tall elm tree in the yard that would get covered with hungry caterpillars in the spring. My father, like all the men of his era, would dutifully fill a giant metal pumping spraycan with poison and douse the leaves. For hours it would rain fuzzy casualties in our front yard, and I, with my child’s sense of compassion and curiosity would gather as many as I could into an empty margarine tub and nurse them with leaves I pulled from the lower branches. They always died despite my best efforts. But it took a long time before I attributed their death to my fathers pumping smelly liquid into the air.
The circle of life, I guess.
I bring this up because it’s kit season, and from Alaska to Alabama folks are noticing just how adorable these little peanuts are. Kit’s are discovered on river banks and in parking lots, and rescued. Like my childish self beside the poison tree, rehabilitation folks scoop up the fallout and nurse it to health until they can release it to be to the wild where it will probably be killed just like its parents – leaving behind its own abandoned kits that the rehabbers will also raise. I can’t help but notice that kits are often promoted as “orphans” as if their parents were living Don Draper double lives or have hightailed irresponsibly off to Mexico. Instead of admitting that their family was trapped and killed because they were wreaking inconvenience. I guess it makes for a compelling story.
It’s baby season at Sarvey Wildlife Care Center
The folks at Sarvey Wildlife Care Center say the baby season is in full swing.
Susanne West said baby animals started arriving in late February – the earliest arrivals of spring in recent memory.
West said two river otters and a tiny beaver are the latest orphans under their care. The tiny beaver was found on a river bank with no other beavers around. It’s not known how it got there or what happened.
The SWC is in Arlington Washington, so I’m going to guess they have some idea about the orphaning. And that is an adorable photo. If you want to help you can donate here. Btw, you’d be surprised to know how very much that kit resembles my caterpillar patients. Lets hope he fares better than they did.
How about this from Anchorage?
Web extra: Baby beaver swims under Anchorage bridge
After watching that, all I can say is either that’s one BIG duck, or this is one very small kit. Also out alone before his time, probably because something fatal happened to his family. His rapid swim shows you how scared he is. Kits tend to amble because life is sooo interesting.
And remember Chapa the escaped kit in Kansas who returned to captivity? Apparently his news-worthy drama attracted some financial attention and he’s winning the beaver lottery.
Kansas Wildlife Exhibit receives large gift
Kansas Wildlife Exhibit supporters on Saturday accepted a $100,000 donation that will fund improvements to the Kanas-themed habitat. The donor is the late Pamela J. Edwards, who left a trust benefitting pets. The trust is managed by local veterinarian Christin Skaer.
The Kansas Wildlife Exhibit has been a mainstay of Riverside Park since the early 1900s, serving as the city’s zoo until Sedgwick County Zoo opened in 1974 when the exhibit’s focus shifted to native Kansas animals. Current housed animals include a bobcat, a skunk, birds and Chapa the Beaver.
Well, I hope you’re new digs are worth coming home for. I daresay you’ll be the luckiest beaver in Kansas, which means still not that lucky.
Closer to home, I was gifted yesterday with that adorable footage of the Napa beavers by Rusty Cohn. He is letting me use it in my talk next week and I am excited and grateful. Along those lines I thought I’d share this video he took that same night of his very nimble kit. Either that beaver’s doing yoga sun salutations or he has the most adorable birth defect ever. I have no idea how Rusty managed to film this without laughing.
