Back when I was trying to prove the number 1 picture of a beaver on (the) google was actually a nutria (I’ll wait while you go check). I started noticing that beavers have unique whisker-like hairs above the eyes. If the lighting is right and you look close you’ll see them. Artists almost never include them but I made sure Libby added them to the beaver festival flyer. Apparently these are called “superciliary tufts” or “superciliary vibrissae”
Your cat has them and they tell him to blink and react to changes in the air flow to catch things. Whiskers in general are incredibly important as guides to tell an animal how close things are and whether they can squeeze in between them. Our wikipedia friend researched the issue and found a 2009 article saying that the neural information communicated by the vibrasse in aquatic mammals was so significant it deserved its own sensory name.: “The Vibrassal Sense.”
Behaviour and ecology of Riparian mammals
By Nigel Dunstone, Martyn L. Gorman
While beavers don’t have to worry so much about trees getting away from them, they do need to detect small changes in flow and water motion to know when and how to make repairs to their dam. Skip Lisle writes this about superciliary tufts in beavers:
Beavers have a phenomenal ability to find their way around a pond underwater in the pitch dark—-in deep water, under ice, at night. They know every square inch of the underwater world, all learned by touch. Various hairs must play an incredibly important role.
This makes total sense. When our very first kit got sick years ago and was found out to be blind we realized that his ability to navigate in water was never notably affected. Yesterday I realized I had never seen these ‘tufts’ on our kits, and lord knows I had been looking at them long enough to notice. Did that mean they get them when they got older? Could they be a mark of maturity? In scouring through photos it seemed like dad had more than mom. Maybe they get more as they aged? Could they be used to tell the maturity of a beaver? Who knew more about this mystery and who could help? I wrote every beaver expert I know to ask their thoughts and I’ll let you know what I learn.
Then I got out our heavy duty binoculars and went down to the dam for some tuft-hunting. Guess what I found our kits have?
Click on the picture to enlarge it. They’re there. While I was down there solving my own mystery, I heard some activity behind me downstream and saw some big wave action. As I was trying to find out who was below the dam, I saw a hulking furry figure scurry over it, dunk immediately underwater and run a steady line of bubbles all the way up to the lodge.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!DAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It has been almost two months since we saw him, but I kept telling myself he was most likely still here. Where would he go? I was by myself at the dam last night for most of the evening and maybe that’s why I saw him. He’s a wary beaver who stays away from commotion. I was sooo happy to see him, and know that our three lovely kits have at least two defenders to look after them.
