Because the beaver isn't just an animal; it's an ecosystem!


Apparently Canadians are easily shocked.

All-white beaver shocks Beaver Dam man

 

A Beaver Dam man is in complete awe of an encounter he had with a blazing white beaver this week.

Paul Mikolas says he was standing near the river by his home, in the aptly named community south of Fredericton, when an all-white beaver swam right up to him.

“Pure white,” said Mikolas. “And it was huge.”

Mikolas said the size of the animal took him by surprise, just as much as its bright white coat.

“I’ve never seen one this big,” he said. “It was the most bizarre experience I’ve ever had in my life.”

Well now you know their are albino everythings right? How much do you want to bet this beaver was a normal sized adult.

Because beavers are normally shy and wary animals, Mikolas said this white beaver’s behaviour took him by complete surprise.

Once it noticed him, he said, it swam across the river, against the current, toward him.

“It came over to say ‘Hi’ basically, I guess,” said Mikolas. “I could have reached down and stroked its head if I wanted to, it was that close.

“It sat there in the water looking up at me and then it did a little spin, and gave its tail a little slap on the water and dove underwater and went downstream and disappeared. And if I didn’t have the pictures, I honestly wouldn’t have believed it happened.”

Since then Mikolas has kept a sharp eye out for the white beaver but hasn’t come across it since.

Ahem. Since it tailslapped I’m guess that it was not in fact coming to say hi.You surprised it. That beaver probably never saw an all white man either,

Just to be clear before we killed the heck out of them their used to be different colored beavers: Blonde beavers, Red furred  beavers etc. I’m so old I already have seen something like this before:

Here is the piebald beaver of Winters California.


No rmore room at the end! The beaver festival exhibits are just about full to the rafters. What with with displays of fish, birds, bees, bats and snakes, not to mention lots of conservation friends. One group that I’m excited is joining us for the first time is Defenders of Wildlife. They didn’t have much of a footprint in California but now they’re big and they are standing up for beavers. So that seems a perfect time to connect.

Their location is listed as Washington DC. This is by their CEO.

Opinion: Congress must address the biodiversity and climate crises in the farm bill

Jamie Rappaport Clark President a of Defenders of Wildlife.

We’re in trouble: biodiversity loss and climate change are reshaping the world as we know it. We are losing species at an unprecedented rate, and climate change is causing a myriad of harmful effects that impact everything from Wall Street to Main Street. We need an all of government response to these challenges, and Congress has a key role to play.

Though reauthorization of the farm bill has been significantly delayed, Congress has a window of opportunity right now to further empower and support our nation’s hardworking farmers, ranchers, and private foresters — many of whom care deeply about wildlife conservation and are taking proactive steps to combat climate change — to conserve the invaluable habitats that support productive agriculture operations. This critical opportunity to improve the farm bill only comes about every five years and cannot be missed.

In New Mexico, with the help of EQIP, one farmer restored habitat that now supports beavers. Beavers create wetlands by building dams, which provide habitat for many other fish and wildlife species. It’s a synergy that is paying dividends, as nearly 50% of North America’s threatened or endangered species rely on wetlands for their survival, and those wetlands are also helping keep that farmer’s soil nutritious and livestock healthy.

So welcome to the beaver festival DOW! We are happy to have you aboard and have lots of things to share. It’s funny that you are talking about biodiversity because our theme this year us that beavers build  neighborhoods and I’m sure you’ll enjoy our puzzle activity.


Okay, Stormy is a beaver orphan in rehab and I guess that’s interesting enough to follow on Youtube. But that’s not what got my attention.

They just found out that she has some kind of tummy parasite but that’s not what got my attention either.

This is about a minute of video watching her sleep – dreaming up a storm. Castor REM sleep. Look at her eyelid. Look at her panting chest. Look at her little paw movements.

WHAT DO BEAVERS DREAM ABOUT???

I must know. And since I can’t know I must speculate. You are welcome to participate. Send your comments below.

As a child psychologist I can’t say this dream looks entirely happy. Is she dreaming of whatever tragedy caused the separation from her family? Is she upset about rehab or missing her siblings? It doesn’t look THAT unhappy though. Is she dreaming of not being able to reach some really tasty food?

Do beavers vocalize in their sleep?

If she were an older beaver who had lived in the world a bit maybe she’d dream about a stubborn piece of wood that just wouldn’t stay put in the dam? Or that elusive tree she couldn’t chew down”?

Some sensitive souls will fantasize that she’s dreaming of the bad trap that killed hermom. Which makes sense from a human point of view, I might dream of that. But beavers aren’t like humans. So I can’t think their dreams are like ours either.

I spent hours watching beavers and can say with certainty they do not have  painful inner lives. They are simplisticly content most of the time. The needs they perceive are fairly easy to solve. And I am not insulting them. I say that with great admiration.

How happy would we be if we mostly wanted the things around us that we could have?

I imagine that  if you could put a microphone on their sleeping brains equipped with a translator  you’d hear something like

MMMM willow leaves“…. and every now and then “Oohh not enough willow leaves:”…. and then again“MMMMM enough willow leaves“.

 


This was a nice new creation by the Beaver Trust in the UK. They are doing a bang up job of promoting our little flat tails. Enjoy.

BEAVER FESTIVAL XV

DONATE

BAY AREA PODCAST

Our story told around the county

Beaver Interactive: Click to view

LASSIE INVENTS BDA

RANGER RICK

Ranger rick

LASSIE AND BEAVERS

URBAN BEAVERS

Ten Years

The Beaver Cheat Sheet

Restoration

The meeting that started it all

Past Reports

May 2024
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  

Story By Year