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North American Beaver
Castor canadensis
38.013, -122.113
Field Notes
Description:
Beavers are mainly active at night. They are excellent swimmers and may remain submerged for up to 15 minutes. More vulnerable on land, they tend to remain in the water as much as possible. They use their flat, scaly tail both to signal danger by slapping the surface of the water and as a location for fat storage.
Notes:
Thank God I got a great opportunity to photograph an entire beaver family in California. I didn't originally know we had any left, thinking they were all hunted to extinction in California. Living in a canal at the edge of Martinez and popular with the town's people, I watched them at the edge of a bank floating by me at sunset. Somewhat thankfully their eyesight is terrible and didn't realize I was there at first. One of the juveniles actually came up to me and sniffed my boot, which was awe-striking, but realizing quickly this is bad, we then had to haze it by scaring it off with yells, shouts, and loud hand claps. This kind of behavior signals human imprinting; as I was informed; the homeless like to feed them at night time. Feeding animals makes them more susceptive to human attack, abuse, or poaching. Please don't feed wild animals. The first picture is the Father and the rest are the 2 out of 3 kits they have.
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