"METEOROLOGIST???"

Beaver (North American) - 8 Photos

It's a well known fact (hopefully) that beavers are extraordinary engineers and superstars at water management.

But perhaps they have another super power up their sleeves? 

It was mid-afternoon on Monday, August 5th, 2024. Environment Canada had already issued a severe thunderstorm warning for parts of Alberta, including Calgary. Now as we all know, similar warnings have been issued in the past & either the storm has passed by or has decreased in its severity.

At 3:30 p.m. this family of beavers was already out of the lodge and patrolling the pond. And swimming turned into tree harvesting in the nearby woods. It wasn't just one beaver, it was six and they weren't collecting branches & logs for dam & lodge repair, they were harvesting entire trees & branches full of leaves & vegetation. 

One beaver after another, adults & sub-adults made the trip from the pond, chewed down a tree, hauled it back into the water and finally dived with the goods into the lodge. If the tree was too large to manoeuvre easily in the water, a second beaver assisted from behind. At one point, there were three beavers huddled over a downed tree in the open meadow. The smaller family members chewed branches from the felled trees and ferried those back to the lodge.

I have been photographing this particular family of beavers for almost a year now & during that entire time, I have never seen so much activity & food collecting in such a short time period. I left the area at approximately 6:30 p.m., when the beavers retreated into their lodge for a much deserved rest & probably a meal.

All told, they must have collected at minimum, ten medium size trees, with leaves, perhaps even more, within approximately 3 hours.

All I could think was, "What do these beavers know that we (as humans) don't?" Even for a relatively large family, that was a lot of food storage for one afternoon (during the day) & we haven't reached the end of summer. And why work so hard for one afternoon when early/late evening is generally the preferred time for such activity?

As the weather appeared to be closing in, I called it a day and went home. Sometime around 8:00 p.m., severe weather warnings were issued with reports of heavy rain, extreme lightning & in some areas, baseball size hail for the Calgary area. Warnings included taking shelter & staying away from windows.

So - yes beavers aren't clairvoyant but animals are much more sensitive to changes in barometric pressure, particularly dramatic ones. For wildlife, being aware of their surroundings, is crucial to their survival. 

I went back to the pond the next day and by very late afternoon/early evening, two beavers eventually appeared out from the lodge to complete some dam repairs. It was definitely a more relaxed atmosphere with much more time out, i.e. grazing in the grass & munching on floating logs and much fewer beavers & activity.

My feeling - That Monday the beavers "felt" an atmospheric change and severe weather was approaching. They didn't know how long the system would last but it was dramatic enough for them to ensure they had ample food supplies to last. 

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