Beavers are shy and nocturnal, so they are rarely seen. Now, most people associate beavers with the ponds and dams that they build on creeks. Less well known are their activities on a lake where they build shoreline nests. On Kootenay Lake I have only seen a beaver about a half-dozen times in twenty years and the last time was seven years ago.
Mind you I have often seen evidence of their activities.
Last evening I watched a beaver for about 20 minutes as it ate, preened, and scratched. Although it was close, it didn’t seem aware of me.
A beaver sits close to the shore with its scaly tail extending in front of it.
Thanks for bringing beavers to our attention. They are the solution, not the problem, as some suggest. You are probably aware, their absence cause a lot of problems, loss of wetlands, loss of biodiversity, lower water tables, increased fire danger, and locally, loss of habitat for spawning habitat for Kokanee. Some might argue with me on the last point. I grew up as a little kid watching beavers during the daytime. And, I have filmed them during the daytime. I hadn’t considered them nocturnal but they might be more active then. I filmed a small family at work. They are quite vocal and seem to have their own language, of course. Years ago, one or more built a nice 2’ high dam on lower Mill Creek in Harrop. That stopped the Kokanee from getting up to spawn. A 30 minute solution was a few very small hand built ponds (12” diameter) at the bank where the dam connected. That’s all they needed. Next morning the beautiful beaver pond above the dam had plenty of spawning Kokanee. The spring freshet washed out the dam. No beavers or dams since and the formerly channelized creek suffers. Personal opinion, I would reintroduce beavers. There are solutions to potential problems. Options are dam analogs or big rocks n logs for a more natural creek channel that has been channelized. That helps trout and salmon. SOP for the Pacific NW. Not so much in B.C.
I agree. Few animals can claim the incredible beneficial effects of their activities to which I would include flood mitigation and groundwater replenishment among many others.
We have local beavers here on the North Shore. I see their handiwork along shore all the time. My neighbor’s favorite apple tree feel vicitm a couple of years ago and we added some wire around trees we wanted to protect along the shore. I saw one once while kayaking and the only other encounter was when I walked down to the lake one dark night to star gaze and was startled by the loud slap of beaver tail on the water. They detected me first!