A friend just shared this on facebook. It’s from wildlife camerman Michael Forsberg and filmed on the Platte River in Nebraska. Make sure you turn your speakers way up for this treat.
Friday night – Movie night! Here’s a dusk to dawn video sequence of a beaver mom and her kit preparing and then repairing their lodge after an intense nighttime thunderstorm ripped through the Platte River Valley last week in central Nebraska. Watch the big storm roll through and make sure your sound is up! This footage was captured from a customized surveillance camera system that we have had in place for over three years now documenting activities on the lodge 24/7 year-round. It has been a fascinating experience with these remarkable creatures. To see more from our Live camera locations, visit the @plattebasin website www.plattebasin
Aren’t beavers wonderful? And don’t they work hard? It was a whine just like that which sealed my fate lo these many years ago. I remember standing at dawn next to Starbucks, watching the kits complain to each other, and thinking, “Do the people that want these beavers dead even KNOW about that sound?” And then, more somberly, “If I don’t do something to stop this myself when am I ever going to hear that sound again?”
So I figured I’d work on saving the beavers for the weekend. Maybe for the entire week. How long could it possibly take?
Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Famous last words, I know. This morning we have some great words from a successful beaver relocation in Wyoming. It’s good to know folks there are doing the right thing for the right reasons.
Beaver relocation a win-win
CODY, WY — Three beavers are happy in their new homes after Wyoming Game & Fish relocated them this summer. They’re also doing important restoration work.
The beavers were trapped on private land south of Cody where they were causing flooding over roads. Game & Fish biologists captured and relocated them to a stream south of Meeteetse, where they will help in long-term efforts to improve riparian and stream habitat.
Habitat Biologist Jerry Altermatt said that beaver can be beneficial to both habitat and other wildlife. “As beavers build dams and pond water is created, riparian vegetation is improved along the stream, stabilizing stream banks, which creates better habitat for fish and wildlife. Beaver dams create ponds that allow beavers to escape predators, but these ponds are also productive wetlands that many birds, deer, moose, and other wildlife depend on. They also increase habitat diversity for trout, recharge groundwater, increase late-season flows and filter sediment and nutrients from water,” Altermatt said.
Oh yes they can, Jerry, And hey its nice when they get to stay where they choose and ,make that difference, but relocated is better than dead, we agree. And it sound like they work hard to relocate the entire family together.
