KORENWOLF AND WILLOW-WOLF

There have been so many beaver news stories in recent days, it’s a relief that I can catch up this morning. Let’s say the leftovers are kind of a mixed bag. Some rotten news and some wonderful news. Of course I’m starting with the rotten.

I’m not sure whether the Round-up has anything to do with it, but I’m going to bet that CDFW know more than they’re saying. Surely concentrations get stronger when the fresh water content of the delta is affected by another drought. I would be heartbroken for those beavers, but the delta is a very hard place to be a beaver even if you aren’t poisoned.

Let’s have a cheerful chaser after that heavy shot of bad news, This was posted by Beavers: Wetlands and Wildlife a few days ago. It’s a feel-good beaver story that is worth sharing. From WJLA in DC.

Isn’t that something? I’m not sure if even I’d have the guts to bundle up an injured beaver and drive him across state lines for treatment in my prius. Good for him!

Good news also to our own Ben Goldfarb who’s amazing book made the Washington Post list of the top 50 non fiction reads in 2018.

50 notable works of nonfiction in 2018

Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter

By Ben Goldfarb (Chelsea Green)

Hurray for Ben and his wonderful, page-turning read about beaver benefits. I have been in the beaver reporting biz a long time now and this is the very best year the animals have ever had, and they owe that all to you.

One final snippet of good news comes from beaver friend Willy De Koning the filmmaker and wildlife photographer in the Netherlands that put together those awesome videos I’ve shared before. I noticed recently on facebook she posted a wildlife photo I didn’t recognize. So I had to look it up. Isn’t it amazing?

Of course like you I had ZERO idea what a korenwolf was. And it turns out it’s a wild hamster in the Netherlands!!!! Its name is like “CORN-WOLF” because it eats what grows in the field. How much do you love this news? Maybe we should start calling beavers “Willow wolves?”

This isn’t her film but I just had to see them in the wild.

Thanks Willy, for yet another wonderful gift! I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to think of all the caged hamsters in children’s rooms, running on that stupid wheel but dreaming of their escape to the Netherlands!

Beavers International

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Educational, Environmental August 25, 2017

Another wonderful beaver film from our friend Willy de Koning of the Netherlands. She also wrote me a note about the different origins of the brown and black beavers. Looks like we have some fruits of diversity growing in the beaver tree too!

I’d like to sent you a new film of the beavers in Limburg, the south part of The Netherlands where I live. There also live a lot of beavers, more and more during the years. It’s not difficult to see them. In this part of the country live brown and black beavers. De black beavers were reintroduced in the Eifel in Germany and came originally from Poland. In Poland they were in earliyer years held fot their fur and specially selected for that
From the German Eifel they came to he south part of The Netherlands by small rivers. Now we have beaver families with brown, darkbrown and black beavers.

Wow, thanks Willy. That is really fun to see. I assume on smaller rivers these guys are still building dams every now and then? It’s wonderful to see the population recovering. Although maybe everyone doesn’t share our excitement.

Now from Canada we have the most polite article I have ever seen about a beaver dam washing out the road. Considering how much damage it caused, it’s amazingly good hearted. I guess it’s true what they say about those nice Canadians?

Builder beavers can obliterate roads when dams collapse

Two cars on Highway 141 in Muskoka, Ont. plunge into a submerged crevasse drivers believed was simply a flooded roadway. Though each road was damaged by a mad rush of water, the flood could be traced to a single cause — the collapse of a dam built by beavers.

No foul to the beavers. Their diligent dam building helps create beneficial wetlands and encourages bio-diversity. However, like all real estate, the location of dams is critical.

“Beavers are very industrious and love to stop the flow of water,” says John Potts, maintenance superintendent at the Ontario Ministry of Transportation’s (MTO) Bancroft office. “We often have beavers working alongside our highways.”

Potts says he admires the industriousness of beavers and respects the impressive force of water and sediment released when a dam bursts.

“Typically we experience one dam break per year and some of them are not very significant,” he says. “But I wouldn’t want to be driving through the area at the moment a big dam lets loose.”

I’m sure we all wish we had beaver-wisdom in our road crews but seriously? You can’t blame the beavers for trying? I think I need to sit down. I’m feeling a little weak around the knees. Usually transportation crews are not friends to the beaver, but this is one for the history books.Thanks for the eye opener, Ontario!

Beavers Abroad

heidi08 Beavers November 13, 2016

Willy De Koning is a filmmaker from the Netherlands who has been our beaver-buddy since she was working on that AWESOME ‘happy’ film that might be fun to post later. (Our moods could kinda use it.) Last night she sent an update on how the beavers are doing in her watery country.

Time for an update:

Some pictures and a film from the beavers (Castor fiber) in my neighborhood. I still am interested in them. Every year we have more beavers. At all the lakes and rivers in my county Limburg are beavers now and every territory is occupied.

That means that the beavers are going to all kinds of small creeks and ditches where they build dams. Lots of farmers don’t like that and that means that the Office of Waterboard takes the dams away or reduces it. There is an official protocol to manage them according to the law.

This couple of beavers just made a dam and built a lodge on a creek nearby. I hope they can stay here in their new habitat.

Best wishes from The Netherlands,

Willy de Koning

Thanks Willy! Goodness we hope so too! She sends a night film she has been able to capture of the hardworking team. It is wonderful to have watchful eyes all over the world. And I am so jealous thinking of them living just down the street from her! But truly if their easier for her to film it can only be good news for us!

More international appreciation for beavers, this time from Benoit Ayott from Quebec. He works for Clan les Lupes du Amerique Nord and posted this on the beaver management forum group. (Which you should join, btw.)

I’m guessing that the advance was made possible by a German invention that was obviously copied by the Chinese and sold cheaper at beaver-mart.

It will undoubtedly lead to a somber round of beaver layoffs and colony closures but, hey I guess that’s progress for you!

Here’s a rerun of Willy’s finest achievement to date. Trust me, you need this.

Caster Fiber Netherlands

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Friends of Martinez Beavers July 14, 2011

One of the most exciting things that occur “backstage at the website” is the list of visitors to this site from other countries so I can see how beaver information is trickling to folks around the world. The second column shows how many unique visitors we’ve had from that country this month.Yesterday, more evidence came in the form of an interested reader. You can read a delightfully translated page about her films here. It refers to beaver lodges as ‘castles’ which amuses me.

I (Willy, woman, 59 years) am a beaverlover from The Netherlands and I make movies/documentaries about the European Beavers who live in our country. They were re-introduced in 1988 and now there are about 600/800 beavers in The Netherlands. If you are interested, you can watch some films at YouTube. All made in the free Dutch nature. You can put the links on your website if you want.

Nice to watch your website en to know that there are beaverlovers all over the world. Best wishes and greetings, Willy

Even though the attached videos are in dutch you won’t want to miss this spectacular footage. She clearly has been working hard to see what happens in beaver world. I told her they deserve an English voiceover or subtitles and she said she’d do it when she had time. In the mean time you probably can guess what she’s saying anyway.

I asked her about the recording of the vocalizations of the kits and told her it was the sound that got me involved. This was her reply:

Indeed, it is a lovely sound that makes you happy. I recorded the beaverkits with a small micophone (and a MD-recorder) that I layed on the lodge between some branches. It was a lodge where I heard the babybeavers often but mostly on different spots in the lodge. Sometimes close to the microphone, sometimes to far away from it. On this photo you can see that Lodge in wintertime when the water was high. In summertime the waterlevel is about 1 meter lower and you can see then how big this lodje is.If I ever come to the USA, I hope I can visit the Beaverfestival. Willy

A new documentary about “beavers in the Netherlands”. A unique and versatile film with lots of casual shots of beavers in the free Dutch countryside. . Made with love for this interesting animal. Already three years following and filming the journalist Sittard / nature cinematographer Willy King beavers. The vast amount of visual material and knowledge she now has a documentary assembled with a complete story about the life of the beaver. This is sometimes quite surprising, even for the experts. . With images of a beaver who fled to the high water on top of the lodge sits, with pathetic sounds of young beaver little from a lodge, toy factions between adult beavers and their offspring, beavers at ease grooming or images of beavers, are unobserved thinking he had arrived, quietly walk on land.

The DVD contains three versions. As the first comprehensive documentary for adults (30 minutes), slightly less than a complete story for 9-12 year olds (20 minutes) and thirdly a simple way complex information film for 5 to 8 year olds (15 minutes). Each film contains information, music and language appropriate to the age group. The DVD, in lovely DVD box, with a total of 65 minutes footage costs only € 15.00 (excluding shipping) and can be ordered by sending an email to:

willydekoning@home.nl