Bob Mount: Beavers are good neighbors to have

The latest edition of Outdoor Alabama, a magazine published by the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, contained an exceptionally well-written and informative article about beavers. The author, Rick Claybrook, is a wildlife biologist with the department.

Claybrook acknowledges that beavers damming activities are sometimes considered damnable by owners of low-lying properties flooded by beaver dams, and that some owners object to the loss of trees the beavers cut for food and dam construction.

Claybrook, on the other hand, recognizes and elaborates on the positive influences beavers have on our environment. The impoundments their dams create allow for settlement of silt and sediment that would otherwise contaminate the downstream segments of the streams. I am reasonably certain that the quality of the water downstream from a beaver pond is substantially higher than that flowing into the pond.

Claybrook also realizes other benefits of beaver impoundments. They reduce the severity of droughts by conserving rainwater and helping to maintain ground water levels. He also mentions the contributions beavers make to a wide variety of wildlife species. He did not mention ducks as beneficiaries, but my observations indicate that beaver ponds provide ideal brood-rearing habitats for wood ducks and hooded mergansers.

Some property we own is inhabited by beavers. One day Janie and I, accompanied by our Doberman, Ziggy, were on the property when Ziggy explored a hole next to the creek. Turns out that the hole was an entrance into the beavers’ home and Ziggy retreated holding a baby beaver in her mouth. Ziggy had some puppies at home and she had mixed emotions about this beaver, whether she should “mother” it or kill it. Janie took the baby, and I saw another baby beaver floating down the creek, which I rescued.

We took the babies home and Ziggy allowed them to nurse on her teats, along with her own three puppies. After about three weeks her pups were ready for weaning and Ziggy decided she was tired of mothering. Janie and I bottle-fed the beavers until they began eating solid food. We gave one to Dr. Keith Causey.

Juvenile beavers need to swim regularly for their limbs and muscles to develop properly, and Dr. Causey and his wife Ann lived in a country house adjacent to a pond (at the time we lived in town). The Causeys allowed our beaver to live in their pond, and we would frequently visit them and swim with our beavers. The Causey’s beaver preferred his and Ann’s house to the one we provided, and during their absence chewed a hole in their front door to gain entrance, necessitating beaver-exclusion repair.

The beavers dug a hole in the opposite bank of the pond and when we called would swim across and swim with us. A problem arose when my beaver decided he owned the pond and began to attack intruders, including a bulldozer. The beaver’s confrontation with the dozer was depicted in a cartoon in Outdoor Life.

Bob Mount is emeritus professor of zoology and entomology at Auburn and writes a weekly column for the Opelika-Auburn News.