D.C., cherry trees near the Jefferson Memorial. The beavers had taken up residence in the Tidal Basin between the Jefferson Memorial and the Washington Monument, and in characteristic beaver fashion began to search for materials for dam and lodge, as well as food. Park Service officials managed to live-trap them and move them to another location, thereby at least temporarily forestalling further damage to the cherry trees. How well the beavers will survive in another location is highly problematic.
Timber companies and small timberland owners also suffer substantial damage when valuable trees are inundated by beaver flowages and soon die. Annual losses of timber to beaver damage may even run as high as hundreds of millions of dollars nationally.
The first response of the property owner who’s suffering damage is to ask the state wildlife agency to fix the problem. This puts the agency in a difficult position, because the owner usually balks when told that the offending animals must be killed. Instead, the complainant wants the beavers caught in a box trap and relocated. While this may seem kind, it’s actually quite the opposite.
In order to understand this seeming contradiction, another facet of beaver biology must be explored. Far from being the peaceful creatures which they appear to be, beavers are highly territorial. If a strange beaver comes to their colony, the inhabitants will either kill it or drive it away. Fierce territorial battles abound where beavers are plentiful, and older beavers soon become heavily battle-scarred from their confrontations with interlopers.
Consider, then, the plight of beavers removed from their colony and set adrift. If the distance is short enough, they will simply return to their former home, thereby continuing the original problem. Otherwise they must either try to enter another beaver colony—a recipe for certain disaster—or try to establish another colony. With virtually every available bit of beaver habitat already taken, the chances that they will succeed are infinitesimal. Further, unless they are transported in the spring, there’s insufficient time for them to build a dam and lodge and store food before the onset of winter. In summary, a beaver taken from its colony and left somewhere else has been handed an almost certain death sentence from starvation, from the onset of winter, or, in its weakened condition, at the fangs of predators.
Although the trap-and-transport option may keep the property owner from feeling guilty that he or she has been directly responsible for a beaver’s death, it would have been far kinder to simply shoot the beaver in the first place. That’s a major reason why most state wildlife agencies now refuse to trap and transport live beavers, even though this stance angers some people. These professionals realize that it’s far less cruel to kill the beavers outright than to doom them to a slow, painful death.
In a few well-publicized instances, animal rights activists have tried to save beavers by having them live-trapped, neutered by veterinarians, and returned to their former haunts. This, it turns out, is no kindness either, for it runs afoul of yet another aspect of beaver biology. Beavers, as it happens, have a social structure that’s very gender-specific; neutering creates chaos in this complex system and renders the colony ineffective for the task of survival.
Despite these conflicts with humans, the beaver is clearly here to stay. On the whole, this is a very good thing. True, some beavers will have to be removed when they cause excessive damage to the works of people, but the beaver’s insatiable appetite for building dams and cutting trees provides a wealth of prime habitat for many other wildlife species. Welcome back, beaver!
2
The Misnamed One: The Muskrat
MYTHS
The muskrat is a close relative of the common, or Norway, rat.
It’s a scaled-down version of the beaver.
It’s called a muskrat because it’s a kind of rat
Timber companies and small timberland owners also suffer substantial damage when valuable trees are inundated by beaver flowages and soon die. Annual losses of timber to beaver damage may even run as high as hundreds of millions of dollars nationally.
The first response of the property owner who’s suffering damage is to ask the state wildlife agency to fix the problem. This puts the agency in a difficult position, because the owner usually balks when told that the offending animals must be killed. Instead, the complainant wants the beavers caught in a box trap and relocated. While this may seem kind, it’s actually quite the opposite.
In order to understand this seeming contradiction, another facet of beaver biology must be explored. Far from being the peaceful creatures which they appear to be, beavers are highly territorial. If a strange beaver comes to their colony, the inhabitants will either kill it or drive it away. Fierce territorial battles abound where beavers are plentiful, and older beavers soon become heavily battle-scarred from their confrontations with interlopers.
Consider, then, the plight of beavers removed from their colony and set adrift. If the distance is short enough, they will simply return to their former home, thereby continuing the original problem. Otherwise they must either try to enter another beaver colony—a recipe for certain disaster—or try to establish another colony. With virtually every available bit of beaver habitat already taken, the chances that they will succeed are infinitesimal. Further, unless they are transported in the spring, there’s insufficient time for them to build a dam and lodge and store food before the onset of winter. In summary, a beaver taken from its colony and left somewhere else has been handed an almost certain death sentence from starvation, from the onset of winter, or, in its weakened condition, at the fangs of predators.
Although the trap-and-transport option may keep the property owner from feeling guilty that he or she has been directly responsible for a beaver’s death, it would have been far kinder to simply shoot the beaver in the first place. That’s a major reason why most state wildlife agencies now refuse to trap and transport live beavers, even though this stance angers some people. These professionals realize that it’s far less cruel to kill the beavers outright than to doom them to a slow, painful death.
In a few well-publicized instances, animal rights activists have tried to save beavers by having them live-trapped, neutered by veterinarians, and returned to their former haunts. This, it turns out, is no kindness either, for it runs afoul of yet another aspect of beaver biology. Beavers, as it happens, have a social structure that’s very gender-specific; neutering creates chaos in this complex system and renders the colony ineffective for the task of survival.
Despite these conflicts with humans, the beaver is clearly here to stay. On the whole, this is a very good thing. True, some beavers will have to be removed when they cause excessive damage to the works of people, but the beaver’s insatiable appetite for building dams and cutting trees provides a wealth of prime habitat for many other wildlife species. Welcome back, beaver!
2
The Misnamed One: The Muskrat
MYTHS
The muskrat is a close relative of the common, or Norway, rat.
It’s a scaled-down version of the beaver.
It’s called a muskrat because it’s a kind of rat
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