Saturday, April 05, 2008

The Master Builders of the Animal Kingdom

It was raining

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It was POURING
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And George was snoring…
[George is our DOG ;)]

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Seriously folks it was not quite 7 am…I in my kerchief and Pa in his cap…
AGAIN Seriously

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These are NOT good pictures,
BUT
It was wet, cold, muddy and my slippers died…

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Heck I almost fell as well…
** We had seen signs of what we surmised as Beaver activity a few weeks ago…never
have located a “dam” But Friday morning I saw the critter gnawing on a recently
gnawed limb from a Box Elder Tree on our Creek Bank.
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Both wood ducks and beavers have made remarkable comebacks across the South. Are these phenomena related? (November 2007)
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Beavers must eat a lot of food to get the nutrition they need. A beaver may eat up to 20% of its own weight in just one day.

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Beavers are semi-aquatic rodents native to North America and Europe. They are the only living members of the family Castoridae, which contains a single genus, Castor. Genetic research has shown the European and North American beaver populations to be distinct species and that hybridization is unlikely.Beavers are best known for their natural trait of building dams in rivers and streams, and building their homes (known as beaver lodges) in the resulting pond. They are the second-largest rodent in the world (after the capybara).
European Beaver Also picture of our American Beaver Benefits of Dams compared to Disruption Beavers Could Be Frogs’ Best Friends That made me smile ;) ** So how is your weekend going?
*** Swimmingly I trust ;)

10 comments:

Lilli & Nevada said...

Oh he is a cutie, we don't have beavers in Central Oregon but they do in the valley. We have Rock Chucks and i have been trying to capture one the last few days as they are now starting to come out of hybernation.

Julie said...

Dee, what an amazing sight! Fantastic to have beavers on your doorstep.

dot said...

I can't decide if he's cute or ugly!
We had the same weather here today. I can't remember where you live of if I've ever known.

Outhouse Capital of Canada said...

we also have beavers in our rivers and lakes.
I never got close enough to get a pic of them.

Alyssa said...

You are going to have a lot of fun watching him. I will be looking forward to pictures of what he is up to. How very neat!

Tom said...

Hi Dee
I found this most interesting... I have never seen one at all.. we have watched many a wildlife show which featured beaver. I would be in awe of having them close at hand... just think of all the pictures you are now likely to be getting...
The European Beaver as resently been released back into Scotland.. http://www.scotsbeavers.org/gallery.htm

Great Post

Anonymous said...

Oh wow. I have not seen one of these in ages and none around here. Your photo is really nice.

Abraham Lincoln in Brookville, Ohio now playing the part of a Mrs. Zac Efron's employee.

DeeMom said...

The bottom picture is in the link European Beaver

While it is a GREAT picture, I did not take it...

Although when I was researching about the animal, I knew that in fact It had been a bever I had seen. THe picture in that particular link was my first confirmation.


Last evening my Hubby adn I saw what we think was a river otter. I did not get a pitcutre. Hubby walked the creek back adn confirmed in deed it was an otter.

Possible I will get a picture of that, they are not nearly likely to spook as a beaver.

Katney said...

You have to get up early to catch one of these guys in action.

Kerri Farley said...

Oh, I love this post! I saw my very first beaver in the wild yesterday (Saturday)....my pics didn't come out so great but I will post them one day this week. It was SUCH an exciting experience for me!!!
It reminded me of a swimming groundhog :) And scared me to death as I wasn't expecting to see it....and it made such a loud SPLASH when it went into the water.
Oh, what a memory was made :)