More flurry about the brave pioneer colonizing Devon at the moment.  Isn’t that always the way? You work hard every day for familiar beavers that matter. And then some new beaver shows up and the world can’t seem to get enough of it! This from Scientific American:

First Wild Beaver in 800 Years Confirmed in England?

Few species recoveries have ever been as dramatic as that of the Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber). Once overhunted to near extinction, only 1,200 beavers remained by the year 1900. Today, after more than a century of intense management and reintroductions, the beaver population stands at more than one million (pdf), which can now be found in almost every country in their historic range in Europe and Asia.

One notable exception to that recovery, so far, has been England, where beavers were all killed off more than 800 years ago (they disappeared from the rest of the U.K. around 1600). Although a few small groups of captive beavers live in England and there are plans to eventually reintroduce some of the furry rodents back into the wild, none live there naturally, on their own.

Until now.

John Platt wrote a fine article. (I of course made sure to write him about salmon extinction and beaver, which he responded to this morning). I wish Scientific American (is that an oxymoron?) would realize that the REAL BEAVER STORY is the fact that we’re worried about salmon, worried about drought, worried about climate change, and maniacally killing off the water-savers that could rescue us all.

Well I guess we should enjoy the excitement while it lasts.

Apparently some people are enjoying it too much:

‘Don’t scare off our rare beaver’

 Farmer David Lawrence, who owns the land where the beaver was spotted, said the sighting could provide an unexpected boost for his camp site business.

 “It’s definitely a novelty,” he added. “The Otter is very busy with wildlife, it’s already a beautiful place to come and this is just another great thing for visitors.”

But he politely requested that would-be beaver spotters refrain from searching the area in case they disturb the animal.

“The last thing we want to do is upset him and for him to move on,” he said. “We’re not sure how he’d react to seeing people, and having seen what his teeth have done to the trees it may be best to avoid him!”

That’s right. You saw what he did to that man in Belarus didn’t you? You want to be next? Then back the hell away!

I certainly have felt that way with our beavers at times, but what I have learned is that the more people watching and caring about beavers, the safer they get. There’s always someone on hand to scold folks who walk on the dam or stand to close. And in England with all those animal-lovin’ sorts, even the little old ladies will be fierce about it.  I wouldn’t worry too much about this beaver being scared off if I were you.

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Yesterday the mailman brought 5 packages of beaver donations to our house! It was weirdly like Christmas, only much, much more beavery! I’d thought I’d share first a double gift from Paula at Owls and Friends in Wisconsin. Beaver-photographer Ann Siegal from Virginia showed me some amazing beaver earrings they had, so I wrote them our story. They answered very kindly and said they were all out of beavers – but they loved our story so much could they send gifts anyway? Guess what I said.

How pretty are these?

 

Thanks Owls & Friends! They will be sooooo popular!  And speaking of owls, did you see that Stephen Colbert has been talking about Superb  Owl week and had the President & CEO of Audubon on last night?