"I'M A LUMBERJACK & I'M OKAY"

Beaver (North American) - 7 Photos

To quote that famous line of the Monty Python "Lumberjack Song" -

"I'm a lumberjack, and I'm okay

I sleep all night and work all day"

I don't know about the "sleep all night and work all day" part for this beaver, although he/she was out during the latter part of an afternoon doing beaver work, harvesting trees for lodge renovation.

I have been fortunate to watch beavers, chew down trees before and drag them across flat terrain, to reach water where they ferry them across ponds, etc. to their destination but this was a real show stopper.

Having floated this felled tree through a water channel near the tree grove, the beaver had hauled it uphill to the dam where the log got wedged in between some branches in the dam's make-up. So what's a beaver to do? After some major tugging & twisting, the beaver went to the other side of the dam where the terrain is flat and then disappears into the pond and took a very short break (Photo #2).

And then comes the amazing feat (and feet). :)  The beaver stood on its hind legs, reached up & grabbed the log with its two front paws, pulled it down, dug its back feet into the mud and dragged it across walking along on its back feet, until it could pull it into the water (Photo #3 through to Photo #7). From there, it was only a matter of steering (well, for a beaver I guess it's much easier), until it reached the lodge where the log was deposited.

Perhaps I'm not the most nimble of individuals, but I would say most people would be hard pressed to lift a heavy freshly harvested tree (and heavy) onto their shoulders, walk through muddy & wet terrain and then swim across a deep pond. And that's for a two legged mammal but the beaver normally travels on all four of its feet and rarely stands on two, except for very short periods usually to sniff the air for an "all clear".

If ever there was a "Beaver Olympics", this beaver is definitely a contender for the "Gold"!

PHOTO #1

PHOTO #2

PHOTO #3

PHOTO #4

PHOTO #5

PHOTO #6

PHOTO #7