Jennifer Viegas is the science blogger for the Discovery News website. I can no longer remember how we crossed paths but as she lives in the city she certainly heard something about the Martinez Beaver bruhaha. I joined facebook primarily to have contact with her, since she was too famous at the time to email. I sent her the article from Wildcare and she liked the idea of beaver fatherhood as a story angle. Yesterday she wrote that she had pitched the idea to her higherups and gotten permission for a beaver-related post. Could I provide some photos and quotes for the story?
Of course I could. This morning I was rewarded with some beautiful writing and great beaverpress! Go read the whole thing and like it on facebook if you’re so inclined! I will correct proudly that the first photo is MINE not Cheryl’s and is in fact a screen grab from video I shot that night….other than that there is only one part that’s wrong, and that is that we never saw dad work on the lodge. That was always mom’s domain. All in all a perfect way to start off father’s day weekend.
Beaver dads are often among the best in the animal kingdom, but one beaver widower who lost his long-time mate merits special attention. “Dad,” who lives in a Martinez, Calif. beaver colony, was suddenly left with three young kits to care for when his devoted partner died of an infection. They had previously raised 12 other kits together.
Heidi Perryman, president and founder of Worth a Dam, told Discovery News, “We were worried about their (the three kits’) safety. Would Dad be able to provide for them and could he care for them as well as she did? Would they learn everything they needed to know without a mother?
Go read the whole thing! It’s well worth your time, and Jennifer was even kind enough to post my dad video (set to the tear-inducing vocals of Charlie Hayden) which has me very, very pleased. I also like how it implies mom’s tail scar was some kind of special uber-design, rather than the healing mark of an old injury. There’s a children’s book in there somewhere: beaver embarrassed about scar, scar turns out to be the thing that everybody recognizes and loves about the beaver, and that beaver goes on to save countless other beavers. The moral is that you shouldn’t be afraid of what makes you different, because its what makes you special and unique! Are you with me?
When Mom was alive, Dad never received much onlooker attention because Mom was such a crowd favorite. She had a distinctively patterned tail that made her easily identifiable.
Dad may not have such natural tail bling, but he’s now drawing fans in California. His family seems to think he’s pretty amazing too.
Cheryl sent this excellent (though uncomfortable) looking photo this am from her visit to the secondary dam. The green Heron had just caught a mouthful that expert Peter Moyle at UC Davis identified as a nice native fish: the Prickly Sculpin. Ow! That’s got to be the breakfast of very careful champions!
