I told you about the beaver family we met at Schwabacher’s Landing a little while back. One of the things that surprised me about those beavers is how interested the people that were watching them were and how little they seemed to know about beaver’s lives. Maybe it is because beavers are rodents that people don’t expect them to be interesting. But they are and they have some of the more complex behaviors of any mammal. They are also a keystone species.
A keystone species, like the keystone in the top of a stone arch, is one that many other animals depend on. Beavers create habitat for fish, ducks, muskrats and a variety of other pond loving animals. Because the beavers are there the other animals have a place to live. Remove the beavers and you remove the habitat for the other animals.
The way beavers create habitat is by building dams that create ponds on creeks and small rivers. Sometimes they make just one dam but usually they create a series of 5 or more. The Schwabacker beavers have at least 7. They have built a lodge where they live above the dam that created the largest pond. They build the lodge of sticks and mud and then excavate an entrance and a living area that can only be accessed under water. That way they provide protection for themselves and their babies.
Beavers are primarily nocturnal, which obviously makes them hard to photograph. But in the fall they ramp up their activities preparing for winter. They don’t hibernate but they do spend the winter in their lodge and the surrounding pond, especially in very cold areas where the pond freezes over.
In the fall they begin collecting more food, usually willow, aspen, and cottonwoods. They cut the trees or branches with their teeth. To compensate for chewing all that hard wood their incisors continue to grow throughout their entire lives. They store the collected branches in the pond where their lodge is located.
They also repair their lodge more in the fall covering it with mud that hardens and provides a strong barrier to predators. Although predators do occasionally catch beavers.
I have watched beavers for years but I never noticed how they carried the mud they use to cover their lodge until recently. They go down to the bottom of their pond to collect the mud and some vegetation. They carry it in their “arms” much like a librarian might carry a tall stack of books, they use their chin to balance the mud and then walk up the lodge on just their back legs.
Our photos are available at www.vernelehmberg.com where you will find over 4,000 photos of animals and plants in Yellowstone, the Tetons, Africa and several places in between.
Love the photos & info about beavers. I especially like the description of how beavers carry the mud “like a librarian might carry a tall stack of books”! Such a great visual image!
Thank you Laughing Wolf! If you had seen them carrying the mud I’ll bet you would have thought the same thing. They looked very serious and like they were carrying about as much as they could possibly handle. It was neat to see because it is one thing I have never seen a beaver do.
Great pics and story. Your line about people watching them made me chuckle as I remember my first trip to Yellowstone in early June 2009. We were seeing so much that we actually bought a wildlife guide and were checking things off the list and trying for the ones we hadn’t seen. Beavers had already been marked off as we had seen them at Fishing Bridge but we hadn’t seen otters yet. So we decided to drive down the Madison River and see if we could find some otters. We came across a wildlife jam so I got out and walked ahead to see what was stopping traffic. I was so excited to hear there were really big otters in the river. I waved to my father to park and I waited for my parents before venturing to the water. Sure enough there were two really big otters except that they were beavers. To this day we still call beavers “really big otters” – I still have yet to see an otter but I hope to someday.
Margie thank you for your story. I love that kind of stuff where you keep joking about it for years afterwards. I know you wanted to see otters but I think it is neat you saw beavers on the Madison. I have spend a lot of time on the Madison and, although I have seen otters, I have never seen beavers there. On your next trip to Yellowstone make it in mid to late June and hike up to Trout Lake in the northeast corner of the park. It is on the park map they hand out at the entrance. I almost guarantee you otters if you are willing to hang around there for a few hours. Please email me before you come to the park and I can let you know if they have been seen up there. jlehmber@lee.edu
Wow thanks for the offer Judy. Was actually just there again this year, I wish I would have found this sight before that! 2009 was my first visit ever at age 40 and I’ve been back twice since. It resparked my love of nature and photography. I try to capture the moments here is Kentucky and I love every moment I can get out. Not quite Yellowstone but it relieves my stress. You can see my attempt to be like you and Deby when I grow up! LOL http://flyingturkey.smugmug.com/
Thanks again for the offer. Oh and to add to the story my dad and I call Grizzlies really big beaver because on our second visit in 2011 we saw something swimming and thought it was a beaver till it turned and it was a grizzly! LOL – we like to laugh at nature and ourselves! http://flyingturkey.smugmug.com/Other/i-K2NhL6d/A
Margie I had a nice laugh about your “really big beaver” and I really enjoyed looking at your photos on your flying turkey website. Thank you for posting the link. Maybe we can meet at Trout Lake next year.
Deby you should have been in Yellowstone in the early spring of 2011. There was lots and lots of snow that year and every time we went from Mammoth to Norris we saw a bear or bears. This one was in Willow Flats. We watched her eat that beaver for hours. We weren’t sure it was a beaver at first but then we saw her reach into its jaws and pull out the tongue. When we saw those incisors we knew. If you look very closely at the bottom of the beaver skin you can see the complete skull with the yellow beaver teeth facing the camera. I got film of it too but Verne’s photos are higher resolution. We look for beavers every time we go by the creek at Obsidian Cliffs. We have only seen them in the late evening when it is too dark to shoot. The one you saw crossing the road was on some beaver mission. They spend a lot of time out of water at night. I have even seen a couple along the Gardner River early in the morning before there is enough light to shoot anything. They come out and eat the grass along the road. I have no idea where there lodge is. We had a student who was the designated driver in one of our school vans after a night on the town in Jackson. As he drove the Kelly Road to the Gros Ventre Campground he hit and killed a beaver. The poor kid was absolutely crushed. We didn’t think it was fair that the only sober one hit a beaver. But my point was they can get a long way from water at night. I don’t know if that beaver was planning a night out on Black-tail Butte or what.
Nice images!! And story!
Thank you Vicky!
Oh, and that bear and beaver image – how does Verne get so lucky? Wow! Tell him thanks.
Judy, first of all the images are great and I really like the reflection one! Great job. And the story and info are fascinating. When I was driving through the park last week, during the night, a beaver crossed the road near the Obsidian cliffs. I know that some are in that stream there but this one was going over to the pullout. Was a funny sight!