Tag: What do beavers eat?

WHERE DO BEAVERS GO IN WINTER? AND WHY DOES A BEAVER’S BUTT SMELL GOOD?

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

Puttering through a cut in the marsh, a moving brown shape appeared. Much too big to be a muskrat, and too small to be an otter, it was a very large and pleasantly plump Beaver!

He swam through several small pools of water then climbed out onto dry land to oil his fur. Beavers have a pair of glands located at the base of their tails that produce a fatty, waxy secretion called castoreum. The Beaver combs the castoreum through his fur to waterproof, enabling him to swim without getting his body wet.

Beavers don’t see or hear very well, but they have an amazing sense of smell. They also use the castoreum to mark their territory. The substance is surprisingly pleasantly scented, made pleasant by the Beaver’s diet of tree bark, twigs, stems, and buds.

Beaver waterproofing his fur.

The castoreum smells of vanilla and raspberry, with sweet floral notes. You could actually say, Beaver butts smell great!

After pausing briefly, the chubby fellow waddled back across the marshy land, heading for deeper water.

Where do Beavers go during the winter months and do they hibernate? Beavers are less active in the winter, but they do not hibernate. They spend the winter in a cozy cone-shaped winter lodge built of sticks and mud. When the muddy wall freezes, it is nearly as strong as cement. The Beavers leave a ventilating hole open at the top of the cone. On a cold winter day, you can see steam arising from the hole of an active beaver lodge, and also, if close enough, smell and hear the activity within. Winter dwellers of a beaver lodge might include the Mom and Dad, yearlings, kits born the previous year, and even possibly a muskrat family.

There are two tiers to the upper part of the lodge that is above the waterline, the lower for feeding and for drip-drying, and the higher tier for sleeping. The sleeping platform is cushioned with grass and shredded wood fibers. The snow pack above, the chamber’s thick walls (two to three feet thick) and heat generated by the lodge dwellers keeps the den toasty warm (by Beaver standards). One study showed that a Beaver lodge in Ontario maintained a fairly constant temperature of 32 degrees while the temperature outdoors ranged from -6 degrees to 19 degrees.

In anticipation of winter, Beavers stock pile great caches of the bark and stems of aspen, maple, willow, birch, black alder, dogwood, and black cherry trees. They also eat a great deal, and the fat is stored in their bodies and tails; the size of the tail fluctuates with seasons. The Beavers huddle together on the sleeping platform, eating less during the winter, which helps keep their activity levels low and reduces their metabolic rate.

Happy Spring!

NEW SHORT: HELLO HUNGRY BEAVER!

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

Beaver Pond, also known as Langsford Pond, is located on the outskirts of Cape Ann’s Dogtown. Exquisitely beautiful and peaceful, the pond is teeming with life, habitat largely created by the relatively new presence of the North American Beaver (Castor canadensis).

Beavers were absent from the Massachusetts landscape from 1750 to the early 1900s due to deforestation from agriculture and unregulated hunting and fur trapping. In the early 1900s forests began to recover as farmers abandoned their fields to work in cities. By 1928, a Beaver was found in Stockbridge. The public’s enthusiasm for the return of the beavers abounded and in 1932 three additional beavers from New York were introduced and released in Lennox. Today, Beavers have rebounded to the extent that some controlled hunting is permitted.

Beavers are ecosystem engineers and the ponds they create become wildlife magnets. Think about just this one example of the ecology of a beaver pond: woodpeckers make holes in the dead trees engineered by Beaver activity, Wood Ducks nest in the holes created by the woodpeckers, and raptors hunt the smaller birds.

More examples of how Beavers benefit other species of wildlife include favored nesting sites of both the Great Blue Herons and Osprey are the dead treetops of older trees in beaver swamps. Local species of turtles, the Snapping Turtle and the Eastern Painted Turtle, benefit from abundant vegetation created by beaver tree felling, which causes the forest to regenerate. Snapping and Eastern Painted Turtles prefer standing and slow moving water and hibernate under logs and lodges of Beavers. Painted Turtles also use floating logs to bask upon.

Like Niles Pond and Henry’s Pond, Langsford Pond is another superb example of a body of fresh water close to a saltwater cove where the combination of the two ecosystems provides shelter, nesting sites, and an abundance of food. While at Langsford Pond, I often see Great Blue Herons, swooping overhead, coming and going, between feeding grounds at the head of Lobster Cove and the shelter found in the vegetation surrounding the pond. Today, December 8th, a juvenile was seen on the far side of the pond, as were numerous Wood Ducks.

Since 1999, Langsford Pond has been protected by the Essex County Greenbelt Association. When I was filming there in October and November it was wonderfully overgrown and somewhat difficult to access. Recently, vegetation has been cut back, which makes walking to the pond’s edge much easier. Disease bearing ticks are present.

Some favorite Beaver food, ferns and American White Birch (Betula papyrifera).

beaver-pond-langsford-pond-gloucester-ma-copyright-kim-smithSimilar scenes as several in the film, only a month later without the vibrant fall foliage –“stick” season

beaver-lodge-beaver-langsford-pond-gloucester-ma-copyright-kim-smith

Beaver Lodge