signs of beavers

[asakiyume]

wakanomori and I went on a New Year's walk yesterday, and we saw signs of beavers



And out in the lake was the beaver lodge:



"What do you think it's like on the inside of the beaver lodge?" Wakanomori asked last night, when we were heading to bed.

"Well, I'm sure there's a sewing machine," I said.

More broadly, something like this. Excuse the blurring on the left--I scanned this Pauline Baynes illustration from my copy of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe



Here, courtesy of the University of Vermont, is what it's more likely to look like:



(More pictures here.)

And here's a diagram from liviniginthewetlands.pbworks.com:


... If people lived in beaver lodges, then C.S. Lewis's imagination would be perfect. But for beavers themselves, the lodge as it is is cozy and just right. Imagine beaver stories that conceive of humans as beaver-pomorphized creatures, still living in dry-land houses, yes, but with moats all around them so the humano-beavers can get in swimming, because what kind of life doesn't have swimming, and of course humano-beavers will eat like beaver-beavers, a diet of the soft bits of trees like willows and aspens, as well as water plants like cattails--but not fish. (Sorry, C.S. Lewis; beavers don't fish or eat fish.) Humano-beavers, like beaver-beavers, will, in beaver children's tales, mate for life, and both parents will devotedly raise their offspring.

Comments

[lifeinroseland.livejournal.com]

Very cool.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

It was a good walk!

[roseneko.livejournal.com]

When I was younger, I had a book called Delver's Danger (https://www.amazon.com/Delvers-Danger-Smithsonian-Wild-Collection/dp/0924483024) that told a story about a somewhat less anthropomorphized family of beavers. It came with a stuffed toy beaver as well, although in my memory the book far outlasted the toy. (No idea what happened to it - probably culled in one of the endless toy giveaway rounds.) Being a Smithsonian imprint, the story prominently featured all sorts of nifty facts about beaver life, including the underwater entrance to the den and the way they slap their tails against the water as a warning signal. To the best of my knowledge, Delver's den did not have a sewing machine in it. :)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

That looks like a much more real-world book, and wonderful--even without a sewing machine ;-)

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

That is so cool.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Yeah; Wakanomori took a picture of one tree where they had started gnawing at one point, given up, and gnawed across the sapling further up. The result was a stump that looked like a sculpture--beaver art.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

That is fascinating. It's wonderful to be able to see traces of wild creatures.

There is a group trying to reintroduce beavers to Wales. Apparently there are already small colonies in Scotland and England has wild beavers on the River Otter.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Yes, my brother-in-law helped with the project to reintroduce beavers in some part of England (possibly Kent; I know he worked on a nature reserve there, but it might have been before then, at an earlier place he worked at).

I hope the project in Wales works out; reintroductions can be successful!

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I would love to be able to spot beavers locally, or at least see some of their handiwork.

[pameladean]

How exciting! Your Narnia joke cracked me up.

All my actual beaver sightings have been at sunset; the best was probably at Lake Maria State Park, where a beaver was moving sticks from the bank to its dam on a fairly impressive stream. It was quite unconcerned about us: the road crossed the stream on a bridge, where we were standing, and it was probably accustomed to people watching it.

We once saw juvenile beavers playing in a lake at Lake Itasca State Park, also at sunset; but where the sighting above was all in shadow, this one featured the blinding rays of the setting sun, so the diving and frolicking beavers were just silhouettes in golden water.

P.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Wow, seeing juvenile beavers silhouetted in golden light would be wonderful, even if you weren't able to make out the details of them.

Once I saw a beaver swimming--I was struck by how large it was.

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

As far as I know, there are no beavers locally, although there are rivers and creeks. But they do sound nifty. I love the Eisbibers on GRIMM.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen Grimm, so I went to the Wiki to read up on Eisbibers and they sound like excellent characters--and then I did an image search, and I like how they look, too :-)

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

And their personalities -- unrelentingly industrious, innovative, but a bit twitchy around predators -- fit perfectly!

[frigg.livejournal.com]

Nice! The beaver was re-introduced here in 1999, and they're doing well. I haven't seen one yet, though. :)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Glad they're doing well--I love that wildlife can be successfully reintroduced to a place. ("Wildlife, meet your old haunts. Place, meet an old friend from years past.")

[frigg.livejournal.com]

Hehehe yeah... in this case 1,000 years!

The elk has been reintroduced as well, and the wolf is coming back on its own, bringing the golden jackal with it, but there are a lot more mixed feelings about that.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

There were jackals in Denmark?! I associate them with hot climates.

[frigg.livejournal.com]

You're right, it's far north for a jackal (although this one is closer related to wolves than the African jackals). We haven't had a really cold, snowy winter since the 2010/2011 one, though, so that might have something to do with it.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Very cool! I guess the humane-beavers would also be given beaver-like traits, like ambition, jealousy and whimsy.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Yikes! Beavers and humans are more similar than I knew.

[sovay]

Imagine beaver stories that conceive of humans as beaver-pomorphized creatures, still living in dry-land houses, yes, but with moats all around them so the humano-beavers can get in swimming, because what kind of life doesn't have swimming, and of course humano-beavers will eat like beaver-beavers, a diet of the soft bits of trees like willows and aspens, as well as water plants like cattails--but not fish.

I like your beaver stories.

The photographs are also very lovely.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Yay! I'm glad you do. And thank you--I like the way that first gnawed stump has a twisted-off look to it, kind of like the end of a tootsie roll or something.

[heliopausa.livejournal.com]

I like the humano-beavers very much! Didn't Venice begin as a settlement guarded by impassible-to-strangers swamps? Which is only a short step from the swift dive underwater to get to the entrance to the Doge's palace - and no wonder the marriage to the water-guardians! :)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Haha! Maybe Venetians are humano-beavers!

I only just learned about that marriage-to-the-water-guardians thing the other day, reading a book called Arabian Wine, which is set in early 17th century Venice.

[heliopausa.livejournal.com]

Isn't it fun when something one has come across in one context turns up pretty soon after in a totally different context? :)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

It seems to happen fairly frequently--maybe because once you know [about] a thing, you're primed to notice it.

[xjenavivex.livejournal.com]

This was fun

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I'm glad--you can use some fun these days.

((hugs))

[pinkroo.livejournal.com]

Mr. and Mrs. Beaver were one of my favorite parts of Narnia :)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

When my mother first read me The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, I loved the beavers' house even more than Mr. Tumnus's house, and yeah, I loved the beavers themselves, too.

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

...maybe like the house with the secret watery basement inSheri S. Tepper's Singer from the Sea....

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I didn't know the novel, but was interested to read about it on Goodreads. Humano-beavers would definitely not mind--in fact would prefer--watery basements, I think.

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

A library would look like a larder.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Because humano-beavers would eat the pages?

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

Yes, of course! As a sort of confection!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Mmmm--my mouth is watering! I'm imagining the edible paperlike stuff that comes around Torrone candies.

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

Yum! or at least, what the rice paper on Torrone seems like to us. :)