NYCkayaker Meter Reader Deceiver Re: What's up in the Bronx?

[ralph diaz]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Whitlock" <johnmwhitlock at comcast.net>

> Finally they just disappeared.  Because I had wrapped the trees we didn't
> want the beavers to cut down in chicken wire, we suspect that after a
while
> they ran out of suitable saplings and just gave up.  Either that or some
> critter got them, and it takes a pretty large and hungry predator to take
on
> an adult beaver.

Not to belabor our beaver tales (tempted to write this as tails, but that's
too cute).  Last year along the edge of the half mile wide marsh that abuts
our property.  I had seen something huge lying in the brush and almost
stepped into a heap of guts while approaching it.  It was a monstrous size
beaver, quite dead and on its stomach.  I had a hard time turning it over
with a stick because of its weight.  It's throat had been ripped out and it
had been disemboweled (hence the nearby gut heap).  Over the course of the
next week, the gut heap got eaten down by something (likely birds) but the
corpse would be moved every day a few feet deeper into the brush. The corpse
and its valuable beaver pelt finally just disappeared.  I could not figure
out what would have been moving it or for what purpose as little more seemed
to be feasted on. For that matter I was never certain what sort of creature
had hastened its demise.  Looking at the front feet, which held enormous
claws (the hind feet were scuba diver large flippers), I can't imagine what
would risk being swiped by them.  It may have been coyotes working as a team
a la those creatures in Jurassic Park.  Coyotes are the most likely to eat
their fill and move on in their wide range of travel.  Possibly it could
have been a bear.  Sometime around this time I also found a large heap of
bear scat at the far end of my back lawn.  Anyway, a double mystery that may
require a visit from Catskill CSI.

The Sunday NY Times editorial today about the Bronx River beaver surmised
that it would not likely find enough timber material to create much of a
dam.  I am not certain that is true since they can haul materials from
fairly far away and it doesn't have to be all timber.  Rocks and mud seem to
be staples of what they use.  Also I read somewhere that its lodge was kind
of threadbare in looks.  It called to mind the opposite: a perfect lodge I
did literally run across while jogging along one of our local rail trails.
It was in the middle of a farmer's field that the beavers had managed to
completely flood.  You had a good perspective of the spot because the rail
trail at that point is on a high causeway that the railroad once used.  The
lodge appeared at least 10 feet tall and full and it was in a perfect
pyramid shape with round sides.  I mentioned it to others including my wife
but had not made clear exactly where it was.  One day we were out on a run
with me going faster and further out on the rail trail than she was running.
When we met back at the car, she was excited by having come across the lodge
and its architectural perfection.  It really is something to behold.
Perhaps I should run tourist trips out to see it. :-)

ralph diaz