Doctorate in Beaver

heidi08 Beavers December 19, 2015

Apparently the Devon Wildlife Trust is sponsoring a PhD candidate to study its beavers. Hmm. Here’s hoping that bringing in the science signals actual learning curves for the Devon beavers, although there’s been plenty of it done already, and we all know how effective that was.

Otter beavers PhD for Hugh

image[1] — **A PhD geography student is on the case to assess the impact of the River Otter’s beavers – England’s only wild colony for hundreds of years.**

The University of Exeter and the Devon Wildlife Trust (DWT) teamed up to recruit Hugh Graham, a geographer who is returning to academia after a year in industry. Their work could one day influence government policy on the animal’s reintroduction, but they will need the support of other enthusiasts to make it happen.

“It’s very much an interesting topic for me,” said Hugh. “I do a lot of fishing and kayaking and spend a lot of time on rivers. “It’s a good opportunity to look at how they impact on river life. It encompasses a lot of what I’m interested in – I’m excited to see them.”

The DWT has plenty of biological and ecological expertise, so Hugh said he was ‘filling in the blanks’ from a geographical standpoint. Hugh will look at the beavers’ physical effect on the river, studying the hydrology and the changing shape of the banks, as well as their impact on vegetation and insect life. They have been known to coppice willow trees to promote growth, and their dam-building can help to improve water quality.

The instinctive behaviour can also reduce the risk of flooding, but Hugh said the animals are unlikely to build on the River Otter, as they only tend to do so in shallow water when they feel unsafe.

HUGH! Welcome to the beaver team! I can only hope that your year in industry wasn’t making hats or perfume. I’m fairly certain that if you actually look at the effect of beavers over time and report what you learn you’ll get a positive view of their return.

Here’s hoping!

And some seasonal (and yes I said season, deal with it) cheer from our beaver friends at OAEC.

Beavers Make New Friends

heidi08 Beavers October 27, 2014

beaver_itv_interview — Claire Wright giving itv beaver interview

The Devon beavers have all kinds of allies. They have farmers, and shop keepers, and school children, and politicians. And their number is growing. When the people lead the leaders will follow and Martinez knows first hand that is true about beavers.

Claire Wright is the Independent (unaffiliated) member of the Ottery County Council. I assumed she’d be pro-beaver until the day she was elected, but apparently I misjudged her commitment, because she won the election and she’s still advocating beaver sanity. Here’s her blog post today:

Why DEFRA should abandon plans to capture our beavers

On Friday I received a letter from Lord De Mauley via Mr Swire, confirming that DEFRA intends to capture them this year.

Friends of the Earth has launched a legal challenge on the basis that the animals are protected by EU law and so cannot be lawfully captured. So now, the government, with its massive financial problems could face a huge legal bill, on top of the capture and testing programme bill, which is likely to cost tens of thousand of pounds….. and for what?

To remove a group of native animals that local people have fallen in love with and that are living happily and harmlessly on a local river.

Our beavers are the only wild beavers in England. Leave them alone!!

The freedom of the beavers is now so popular in England that the East Devon MP has also asked for them to be returned to the Otter (albeit after first testing them to make sure the don’t have the parasite no one is really worried about).

Hugo Swire: Return beavers to the River Otter

East Devon MP Hugo Swire has called on Defra and Natural England to process a licence that will allow beavers to return to the River Otter, providing that they prove disease free after their capture and testing.

In July, Mr Swire held a meeting with Defra Minister Lord de Mauley along with representatives from the Devon Wildlife Trust to discuss this matter.

Mr Swire said: ‘The logical way to proceed now is for Natural England to capture the beavers and test them for the dangerous Echinococcus multilocularis (EM) parasite.

‘In the event of the beavers testing negative, I believe that they should then be released back into the River Otter, under licence, and monitored for a specific period. This, of course, must be done in close consultation with the local landowners and farmers’

Otherwise known as the “In the event that people do exactly what we want, I think we should let them” answer. This wan support was not good enough for the robust Ms. Wright who responded with:

It is encouraging that Mr Swire is doing something to put pressure on the seemingly paranoid DEFRA, however, the answer is surely to abandon the expensive and unnecessary capture plans, rather than risk the animals becoming ill or dying in captivity either before or after they are operated on and tested for a disease that Public Health England are apparently unconcerned about them having.

If the kits are separated from the parents, they will probably die, either in captivity or on the river. They rely on their parents for warmth and food.

I have asked Mr Swire twice now if he will urge DEFRA to abandon the plans, to no avail.

I’m trying to imagine Rob Schroder and Mike Menesini scrambling to show that they defend our beavers more than their opponents. (Give me minute, that’s a nice image and it makes me giggle.) The beavers in the river Otter must be really, really popular. More popular than the the beavers in Martinez. More popular than ice cream in July. I mean like Beatles popular.

Back in California I’ve been hard at work on a grant for our 8th festival. Yesterday I heard confirmation from artist Marc Poulin that he is excited to make buttons for our event and going to hand design the images himself, offering us an amazing deal. Each child will get a burlap tail where earned pins can be displayed, and since the price is lower we can offer 20 designs and involve more exhibits.Marc has generously donated to our auction in the past and is excited about coming on board. You’ve seen his creativity in boutiques, cutting edge shops and pet stores across the country. His designs are made here by his team at his warehouse in Oakland California and no one ever looks at his artwork without smiling. Here, I’ll prove it.

If I were you I would find a child to bring along with me on August 1st, because you are going to want one of everything. Thanks Marc!

Deja vu all over again

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Environmental, Festival, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Recent Sightings, Who's Killing Beavers Now? May 21, 2014

Napa kit — Napa beaver kit – Photo Rusty Cohn

Who was it that said “The more things change, the more they stay the same”? Here at beaver central we say that every day. Sometimes this familiarity is delightful, like when Rusty sends me excitedly the first photo of a kit he took recently. Or when the PRMCC commission gives full approval for another festival at last night’s meeting. Or when a reporter from Carmel calls me excitedly to discuss how to attract beavers to the area.

And other reruns are less cheerful, such as the grisly discussion they’re starting in England over the unauthorized beavers in Devon.

River’s rare beavers face cull threat

A family of beavers is living in the River Otter but campaigners believe they are in danger because the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) does not view them as native.

They claim that Natural England is drawing up plans for a cull even though a programme has begun to reintroduce the animals into the wild in Scotland.

Derek Gow, an ecologist and member of the Beaver Advisory Committee for England, said he feared Defra was using the threat of a rare parasite tapeworm (Echinococcus multilocularis) found in the European beaver to remove the three animals in Devon.

The tapeworm can be passed to humans who handle infected animals or eat contaminated food. It is known to cause a headache, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.

Although it is not known where the Devon beavers come from, Mr Gow believes that trapping them for testing could be traumatic and risks killing the young.

“Trapping and culling these animals would be an appalling thing to do. The risk of this parasite is very small as it is only found in directly imported adult animals,” Mr Gow told The Independent. “The real reason Defra wants to trap them or kill them has nothing to do with beavers; it’s to do with pressure from a small minority of angling organisations.”

When the story that they were thinking about the possibility of maybe killing the intrepid beavers who moved into the river Otter trickled out, the officials got an earful from upset residents who are fond of the brave recolonizers and did some quick back-peddling.

“There are no plans whatsoever to cull beavers. We are currently working out plans for the best way forward and any decision will be made with the welfare of the beavers in mind.”

Hahaha, just in case you wondered what it looks like when someone speaks out of both sides of their mouth, here’s your example. With three international papers running the story today, you can bet he’ll be equivocating more soon. Still, I can’t help thinking of the grinch.