Autumn Outing Becomes Rodent Rescue

Over the Columbus Day weekend my partner and I took a walk on some land our neighbor manages as a wood lot along a river in Leeds.

The weather was fantastic for October and the leaves seem to be at their peak for color. We headed over in our boat and landed on a small landing he told us we would find. There was a wide mown path leading out through the land which we followed as it meandered through open woods with water on both. He manages the woods with a small tractor and selectively cuts here and there maintaining a clean and beautiful wood. We enjoyed our walk and got back in the boat to head back down the river and home.

Not far past the landing I saw a beaver on the shore line. He/she just sat there looking at us. We decided that was odd behavior for a beaver and looked more closely and realized that this beaver had actually managed to chew through a fairly large tree, probably 10 inches in diameter only to have it land on his tail and pin him where he sat. We landed a bit down stream and slowly moved up to check out the exact circumstances which proved to be that he was pinned under the tree. He remained fairly calm and we wondered how long he had been there.

The two of us couldn’t move the tree so we went after a couple of boats of men fishing a bit farther down stream. The second boat agreed to help. They got their canoe up there and we all got out to try and get the tree off the beaver. The beaver did get a bit more agitated when we all arrived but he just wanted to head into the river. We levered it off some with a large maple log but not enough. What ended up working was a rope tied as high as we could reach. We wiggled the tree enough so that the beaver slid on out and disappeared into the river with a very restrained slap of his/her tail. We all felt relief and hoped the beavers tail was not too damaged.

All in all a perfect Autumn day!

Leslie B.

Comments

[Leslie]

I also thought it was probably a young beaver. You’ve got to watch those kids every minute! I am glad we were there!

[Annette]

What an interesting blog. I wonder if this was a young beaver who didn't know quite what he was doing? So great that you guys were there to help!