"BEAVER MOMMA"

Beaver (North American) - 5 Photos

It can be difficult to determine "who's who" in a beaver family. 

Size can be a factor and also who leaves the lodge initially. Usually, the younger beavers (or who I refer to as the teenagers) are the first to appear in the evenings. The kits born that year don't generally swim out of the safety of the lodge until close to dusk and then they are usually accompanied by an adult, probably their mother.

It was getting onto sunset when having seen three smaller beavers appear and find various spots to enjoy the Spring grasses, etc., this fourth beaver swam out from the lodge. 

Much larger and having reached the shore, she did the water shake to shed herself of excess water and then proceeded to make the short climb up the bank. A quick retrieve of a nearby sapling branch (Photo #1 & Photo #2), obviously previously harvested, and it was back down into the pond and a dive to enter the lodge.

Photography can provide some in depth insights that might be missed by just observing, even with a pair of binoculars, particularly when the movement is so rapid.

When I downloaded the photos from that evening, I was pleasantly surprised that the camera had captured four clear shots of the beaver's water shake, providing a slow motion view of the action.

With each subsequent photo (Photo #3 through Photo #6), this beaver's gender & position in the family became apparent. Not so obvious, perhaps, in the first two of the set but in the last two, one can clearly make out the beaver's mammary glands & from their size, she has recently been feeding kits. And from her retrieval of "baby food", i.e. the young sapling, the kits are now at the very least transitioning to an adult menu.

So perhaps in the next few weeks, the kits will make their initial foray into the pond accompanied, of course, with their mother.

PHOTO #1

PHOTO #2

PHOTO #3

PHOTO #4

PHOTO #5

PHOTO #6