Tag: Scottish National Heritage

Accidental Orphan

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, stupid solutions, What's killing beavers now? October 24, 2017

Sometimes, for their own nefarious reasons, the powers that be decide to do a heinous, horrible thing just because it’s in their interest – even after they fucking promised not to. And because it’s horrible and they are breaking their worthless promise, they send their most ghoulish henchmen out to perform the treachery on the sly. Now because the only goons they could possibly get to help them in this dastardly act are the knuckle-dragging imbecile types, the whole thing goes TERRIBLY wrong and winds up causing more attention in the end than if they had just did it on stage in a frickin’ tutu in the first place.

Which is where we are in Beauly.

Trapping of ‘illegal’ beavers halted after two deaths

Two beavers have died after being captured by trappers working for the government wildlife agency Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) because they were living outside permitted areas.

The social animals, believed to be a male and female, are thought to have been living as a family on a river in the Beauly area of Inverness-shire. A baby beaver, known as a kit, was captured but survived.

The orphaned kit is now being cared for by animal welfare staff at the Scottish SPCA, and a campaign to trap more Beauly beavers, which SNH says were introduced to the area illegally, has been immediately suspended.

In a statement, SNH said the deaths occurred after screening by vets. The agency said: “Vets have established that the first animal was suffering from an eye deformity and a suspected infection. Work is under way to establish the cause of death of both animals.”

The young beaver will be re-released later at the site of Scotland’s official reintroduction project in the Knapdale Forest, Argyll.

Well yeah, we killed two beavers but one of them had a mangled eye already so it’s to be expected right? The other one probably had something wrong too, and that orphan kit is probably better off without his deformed parents. Amirite? We actually helped him!

Last night SNH said that the trapping and screening techniques it employed had “been used safely in many previous cases, and were undertaken by highly qualified professionals”.

Once upon a time they decided to trap all the free beavers on the river Tay and put them in zoos. They brought in these fancy box traps from Europe and they caught one beaver with their efforts. Poor little Eric, was sent to the Edinburgh zoo and renamed Erica when it was determined that he was a “she”. Is this ringing a bell for anyone? Guess what happened to poor Erica? She died. And the idiots who had ordered the policy started to realize it wasn’t going to work because there were 150 free beavers and not 150 zoos.

You would think that people would learn from their mistakes, or at least learn to dread the shame of more mistakes. Do you think they ever read the novel Oliver Twist? Making NEW ORPHANS is generally bad policy. The story is in the Sunday Times and the BBC and it’s only tuesday so everyone will know soon.

The Scottish government ordered the trapping and removal of the beavers from the river near Beauly because they had been released illegally.

Cabinet Secretary Roseanna Cunningham was clear in July that “swift action” was required in Beauly but little explanation has been given on why attempts by SNH to capture and relocate these beavers have now been curtailed

I know why. Because they got caught. That’s why. In a horrible nasty parent-killing way. If they were using those big cumbersome box traps the only possible way those beavers died was because no one could be bothered to check the traps and they starved or suffocated in there. I guess that orphaned kit was probably in the box beside their dead parent for hours. which is a horrible thought. But they’re just animals right? It’s not like that will be upsetting.

I HATE THESE PEOPLE. And their weaselly lying murderous efforts to keep the farmers and anglers happy. I hope those dead beavers become the albatross around the neck of every slimy politician who wanted them gone in the first place.

A Remarkable Entrance

heidi08 Beavers June 6, 2011

Click on the Keyhole to be taken to the Scottish National Heritage Webpage, home of the famed beaver trial. This is such a fun, interactive and educational beaver introduction I almost feel jealous, although I can’t imagine our well-appreciated charm bracelet activity didn’t spark some ideas along the way. Make sure you pay attention as you go through the entrance though, because it only does it the first time you visit. You will have to delete your temporary files to get it to play again. It’s a nice introduction to a pretty complex concept, well done team beaver! I wish they specifically mentioned salmon, since that’s what all their anglers are afraid of – maybe showed a picture of one leaping over a dam – but that’s just me.

Excellent beaver festival IV planning meeting last night. This year may well be the best ever, which is good because rumor is that beaver experts from at least three states are planning to visit and get ideas for how to launch a festival of their very own in their communities.

1-2 Two little Beavers…

heidi08 Who's Killing Beavers Now? April 3, 2011

Early this morning (5:30) stalwart beaver defender Jon Ridler saw two kits together, one who ducked under to go in the bank hole just downstream of the primary dam, and one who went back to the hole next to the footbridge. I’m as happy as I can be to know that there are at least two members of our favorite team around.Hopefully there are more than two, but this is encouraging. Now if they could just start the heavy lifting!

On a much less happy note there is sad news from Scotland yesterday where the Edinburgh Zoo announced that their lone captured beaver “Erica” had died. Remember that Scottish National Heritage had decided that the ‘free beavers’ of the river Tay should be called the “Feral beavers” and captured to protect the ‘official’ beaver trial. Erica was the first and only capture of their grand campaign and was never displayed or even much discussed in captivity. A Back-flipping truth-as-pretzle BBC article about the news has even invented the word ‘re-homed’ to avoid saying “captured” when discussing the death.

Re-homed? Really? Have you suggested that term to the Scottish Prison Service because it’s a winner! (I would have gone with ‘kit-napped’ myself, but I’m a traditionalist). I guess dying in captivity is another kind of “Re-Homing”….re-final-homing….No mention of that fact that since beavers are inherently social animals stealing one child from the family and locking it alone in concrete with no other beavers was pretty much a death sentence anyway. A few days before the death was announced (god knows when it happened, January?) SNH announced that they were done playing beaver re-homers for now, and the ‘trial’ had been a success. Remember the 20 beavers they said they were going to catch when this started, and the 50 they were afraid eventually they wouldn’t have room for, I guess I’d call it a success to. If they only capture one at a time, keep them in isolation for 6 months, and let them die, they won’t ever run out of re-homing space.

I made this for Erica yesterday, and I truly hope the dark furry stain of this story will halt any plans SNH might have for this in the future.

Dialogues

heidi08 City Reports, Educational, Environmental March 3, 2011

I was pretty pleased with my ‘death and the beavers’ so I sent it around to the usual places, including to the chief executive of the Scottish National Heritage who’s authorizing the exciting beaver-capture on the Tay. Believe it or not I hesitated. I figured this kind of poking the dragon could result in some serious scalding, (or at least scolding). In the end, I was too proud of the evocative image to avoid sharing.

I added the message, “Still waiting for Scotland to do the right thing. This is an opportunity for study, not stealth. Any country smarter than a beaver can keep beavers in the wild. I believe at some point you will decide this is easier to do well than allow to be done badly. We’d be happy to connect you with real solutions if you need them.”

I’m glad I did. The same morning this article was the front page of the BBC I received this.

Dear Dr Perryman

I absolutely agree it is important to do reintroductions well rather than badly. Indeed that is precisely my point. I think you maybe need to know what is actually happening in Scotland before making your mind up. In Scotland there is a legal, licensed, monitored experimental reintroduction of beavers going on in Argyll. The licensees are the Scottish Wildlife Trust and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland – people who I think are both smart and know a bit about zoology. I would have hoped the whole Scottish conservation movement would have got behind them, but apparently there are some who won’t. Wonder why? The Argyll project complies with Scottish law, European law and IUCN guidelines. I hope it will be successful. To my mind that is what ‘doing it properly’ involves. Why not come across and see, or speak to SWT and RZSS and find out? Compared to this I can’t see that illegally allowing a few captive beavers of uncertain origin to escape is anyone’s idea of the right thing!

Dr Ian Jardine

Hmmm. No scolding. An attitude of reason. Obviously, he wants to appeal to a ‘colleague’. He clearly thinks he’s doing the right thing, and is going to need help finding the tools for redefining ‘right’. Of course I would change the words “uncertain origin to escape’ to “uncertain origin to exist” but that’s not worth writing back yet. I wrote

Dr. Jardine, thanks so much for taking the time to write back. I appreciate your efforts to protect the trial and its value and I respect your thoughtfulness regarding your role. My primary concern is the razor-thin footbridge of public trust you have secured for this effort – threatened on all sides by anglers who don’t believe the research proving that beavers help salmon, and farmers who are suspicious about beavers raising the water table and can’t ‘see the forest for their missing trees’….

The question I would ask myself is whether trapping ‘feral’ beavers broadens or narrows that footbridge. Without faith in SNH, the official beaver trial is functionally useless – even if it produces good data no one will respect it and ultimately no one will believe it. You have the science and data squarely behind you but the truth is that public good will is the only real tool you have for learning about reintroducing beavers in Scotland, and I would ask yourself seriously whether trapping ‘the wrong beavers’ hurts or helps that.

You can probably guess what I think already.

Heidi

Footbridge of public trust. I like that image. Maybe, just maybe I could nudge him towards the realization that the The Scottish beaver Trial isn’t trying out how beavers will do in scotland – we have the Crannogs of history to tell us they’ll do just fine (thank you very much). It’s to see how beavers will do in the attitudes of the Scottish people. How will people do sharing their land and waterways with beavers? Wouldn’t some citizen science be helpful in that? Maybe a watchdog group that runs parallel to the formal beaver trial? Say a group recording progress of the untagged free Tay beavers?

Dear Heidi

Thanks for this. As you say it’s a tricky one and it comes down to judgements about science, politics and public perception and mood.

My judgment is that public opinion is behind the beavers at the moment. What I don’t want is a section of society getting a toe hold to say ‘you said you would do this properly but you’ve broken your promises’. On balance I see that as a bigger political risk – remember our last Government refused a trial introduction so this one gave promises to justify changing that decision. We may not agree on this one, but I think we’re on the same side in the long run!

Ian

On the side of beavers. (Excellent book title.) Not exactly accurate here though. We might both be on the side of ‘beaver-kind’ being a benefit to the watershed, and I’m really grateful for that, but Its hard for me to see how being on the side of beavers means trapping and separating family members and sending them to live in zoos. I think we’re on different sides for as long as these beavers lives run, lets say the next ten years under ideal conditions.

I’m glad for the contact. He sounds fairly set in his thinking that getting rid of the extraneous beavers will protect the good name of the study, which, btw, was pretty much my point in the graphic. I’m fairly certain that this is going to look like a necessary evil to Ian until it becomes an impossibly bad idea in the public eye, and that’s unfortunate. In protecting the ‘good study’ by getting rid of the ‘bad beavers’ SNH will ultimately tarnish the reputation of the good ones as well, and beavers will pay the price for it.

Sigh.

If you need a little good cheer after that exchange, I’m posting a photo of a nighttime visitor from my friend in England. Is that the cutest non-beaver face you ever saw?

Garden Fox — Garden Visitor - Mary Gibson UK

Feral Beavers?

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Uncategorized November 27, 2010

High upon Highlands, low upon Tay,

Bonnie George Campbell rode out on one day.

All saddled all bridled and booted rode he,

And home came the saddle but never came he.

So this morning’s great escape story comes from Scotland where they’ve decided to round up and trap all the escapee beavers from that have broken loose from private farms over the years and bring them to zoos. They are calling them “feral beavers” to make them seem looming and dangerous and to ward off the inevitable wave of public opinion that’s likely to come their way.

Note that the BBC story says ’20 feral beavers’ have escaped over the years whereas the Guardian reports that there are more than 50 at large! (Why stop at 50? If we’re going to speculate wildly lets say a 100. How about a million?)

Some wildlife experts believe that more than 50 beavers could be roaming free: families of beavers, and evidence of their lodge building, have been regularly seen by villagers and naturalists around Invergowrie on the outskirts of Dundee, Forfar in Angus, Glamis in Perthshire, and Tentsmuir near the mouth of the river Tay.

Would a beaver without a family build a lodge? Yes. A single disperser hoping to attract a mate would build a lodge near a great food source and hope to get lucky. He or she would hope a LONG time. The fact remains that these beavers, all by themselves in a country where there ARE NO BEAVERS, are highly unlikely to find a mate and reproduce. Stop me if I’m going to fast for you. The will very likely wander the countryside, encounter zero beavers for their troubles, be unable to survive on their own, and die.

Ahh, but I can hear the fevered Scottish scientists now saying yes but what if a pregnant beaver escapes! Then introduces her feral brood into the countryside? Just so you know, pregnant beavers are very very very unlikely to roam. They have a family to think of and would rather stay where they are. Your ‘escapees’ are probably yearlings who took great pains to ‘disperse’. They have not bred and don’t have mates and aren’t likely to find one in your country. What if a male-female pair of disperers escape together? the ‘bonnie & clyde’ of beavers? I suppose its possible. Did anyone ever report losing two beavers at once?

Could they mate with something else? hedgehogs? wild dogs? members of the monarchy? No. Just calm down and realize that beavers without other beavers will live out some portion of their lives, eat a few trees, and die.

Sir John Lister-Kaye, a former president of the Scottish Wildlife Trust who keeps beavers at his Aigas wildlife sanctuary near Inverness, said the animals were once native to the UK and should be given protection under European conservation directives if they were breeding successfully.

“I think this is quite simply professional jealousy. Scottish Natural Heritage and the zoo have been quite hostile to those of us who have private collections or who know quite a lot about beavers,” he said. “I think the public needs to be in on this debate; they’ve voted 59% in favour of the beaver.”

Well, good luck trapping these 20 or 50 beavers and transferring them all safely to the zoo. i can’t imagine you have room for that many beavers in your zoo but I’m sure you’re counting on the fact that a) many will not survive and b) that there aren’t really that many to begin with. Ooh look the story gets better!

SNH said the trapping operation, which is being supported by Tayside police, was a matter of urgency because beavers were spreading so rapidly. A spokesman said: “The longer we leave it the greater the task will be. We are also urging all owners of animal collections to take greater care in keeping their animals captive.”

Spreading so rapidly? When the female enters estrus once a YEAR for 12 hours? And there are no males to breed with anyway? Is there a secret beaver fertility clinic in Scotland that we don’t know about? Well good thinking to involve the police. I’m sure that will go over well with the locals.

I wrote the Scottish National Heritage in Tayside and explained the risks of live trapping and put them in touch with Sherri Tippie. I can’t imagine they’re over worried about being careful with the animals, they certainly aren’t worried about bad press.

I’ was still working on the term ‘feral’ when Cheryl sent this lovely video. Wait until the end when the beavers make a decision what to do with the infrared camera in their lodge. I knew it!