Every now and then in my beaver forays I encounter the character of the stalwart outdoorsman who has used Alhambra Creek for fishing, or for catching crawdads, or to launch his Kayak, and feels fairly familiar with the landscape. Some of these greet our keystone species discussion with suspicion.
“I know this creek. There are no (fill in the blank: beaver, otter, muskrat, mink) on this creek”
This always surprises me because it seems to suggest creeks have the static populations of prisons with familiar residents that you know by name like a predictable 70’s sitcom. It ignores the fact that creeks are really water highways, and animals use them to pass from one destination to another. Beavers alone have been known to go some 30 miles to find good habitat for dispersal, with females going farther distances to locate better feeding. Who would expect to know everything that passes through a corridor?
I wonder if the same man would stand on the freeway and say,
“I know 680. There are no porsche on 680.”
[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=tzKTwJEjpac]
