European beaver (Castor fiber)
The Beaver (genus Castor) is a large, primarily nocturnal, semiaquatic rodent. Castor includes two extant species, the North American beaver (Castor canadensis) (native to North America) and Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber) (Eurasia). Beavers are known for building dams, canals, and lodges (homes).
The Eurasian beaver or European beaver (Castor fiber) is a species of beaver which was once widespread in Eurasia. It was hunted to near-extinction for both its fur and castoreum; and by 1900, only 1200 beavers survived in eight relict populations in Europe and Asia. Reintroduced through much of its former range, it now occurs from Great Britain to China and Mongolia, although it is absent from Italy, Portugal, the southern Balkans, and the Middle East.
Conservation status
IUCN Red List
of Threatened Species. Version 2012.2.International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 5 January 2013.
Range
Areas inhabited by beavers in Europe outside of Russia in 2001: red shows range of Eurasian beaver; purple shows range of introduced North American beaver in Finland. In 2009, the Eurasian beaver was reintroduced into Great Britain.
The Eurasian beaver is recovering from near extinction, after depredation by humans for its fur and for castoreum, a secretion of its scent gland believed to have medicinal properties. The estimated population was only 1,200 by the early 20th century. In many European nations, the beaver became extinct, but reintroduction and protection has led to gradual recovery to about 639,000 individuals by 2003.
Castor canadensis distribution:
Dark green: native
Light green: introduced
Milishnikov found in genetic studies that beaver likely survived east of the Urals from a 19th-century population as low as 300 animals, and that factors contributing to their survival include their ability to maintain sufficient genetic diversity to recover from a population as low as three individuals, and that beavers are monogamous and select mates that are genetically different from themselves.
About 83% of Eurasian beavers live in the former Soviet Union due to reintroductions, but the result is that beavers in Mongolia or Siberia do not appear significantly genetically different from samples from the European part of Russia, despite the great geographical distance.
Scandinavia
In Sweden, the beaver had been hunted to extinction by around 1870. Between 1922 and 1939, about 80 individuals were imported from Norway and introduced to 19 separate sites within the country. Beavers reintroduced to central Norway's Ingdalselva River watershed on the Agdenes peninsula, Sør-Trøndelag County in 1968-1969, were recently studied. The area is hilly to mountainous with many small watersheds.
Approximate current range of the European beaver
Rivers are usually too steep along most of their length for beaver colonisation, so that suitable habitat is scattered, with rarely room for more than one territory in a habitat patch. While widespread signs of vagrant beavers were found, spread as a breeding animal was slowed by watershed divides in the hilly terrain.
Colonisation of all suitable sites within a watershed once the species was established was rapid. Some spread could only be plausibly explained by assuming travel though sheltered sea water in fjords.
In Denmark, the beaver was reintroduced to the wild in western Jutland in 1999 and in Arresø, northern Zealand, in 2009 after it was hunted to extinction around 1000 CE. The reintroduced beavers were caught in the river Elbe in Germany. As of 2013, the Danish population of beavers was estimated to be roughly 185 individuals.
Some Eurasian beavers are present in Finland, but most of the Finnish population is a released population of C. canadensis, the North American species. (These animals were imported to Finland in 1937, when it was not yet known that C. canadensis was a different species from the Eurasian beaver.)
Areas inhabited by beavers in Europe outside of Russia in 2001:
Red shows range of Eurasian beaver
Purple shows range of introduced North American beaver in Finland.
In 2009, the Eurasian beaver was reintroduced into Great Britain.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Thursday 5 th
of July 2018
and I left the hotel just after 4 o'clock and I reached Karmansbo just after 5 o'clock. It was easy enough to find the place, but I had to call Wild Sweden as I could not see any signs or anything, so of course, I thought I had the wrong place.
But I was at the right place and I discovered a very small placard (smaller than A4) saying WILD SWEDEN on the side of the barn. It was 5 o'clock so I had one hour to walk around to look forbirds. We would start at 18:00 and as it was a beautiful area it was no problem to kill the time.
The place is just next to a stream and dam with an old water turbine driving an old piston that was used when it was an ironworks back in the 60's. A gorgeous place!
It is a very beautiful area
It is a very beautiful area
It is a very beautiful area
Common Gull/ Fiskmås
Common Gull/ Fiskmås
I walked around the area and it was soon 6 o'clock. A family from USA arrived and it will be only us going on the beaver safari. We will use 2 boats, one for me and the Guide + one Trainee Guide and one boat for the family + one Guide.
We will start with food and I went to look for some birds. There are a few Fieldfares/ Björktrasts on the lawn, but they were scared and I never got any pictures. I was walking towards some trees and there were a few Great Tits in the tree.
European Pied Flycatcher / Svartvit flugsnappare
The bird takes off
Great Tit/ Talgoxe
Eurasian Tree Sparrow/ นกกระจอกบ้าน/ Pilfink
Eurasian Tree Sparrow/ นกกระจอกบ้าน/ Pilfink
Juvenile White Wagtail/ Sädesärla
Juvenile White Wagtail/ Sädesärla
Juvenile White Wagtail/ Sädesärla
One of the Guides comes after me to tell me that the food is served. I tell him that I will come later as I wan't to get some pictures of the birds, and of course, that I'm on diet.
They will have a meeting with information about the beavers before we leave for the beaver safari. I didn't want to miss this so I gave up the birding. We started by introducing our self and I had my food and Pepsi MAX that I had brought from the car.
I cannot help but thinking about the old album with Cheech & Chong album: Los Cochinos. The album shows where to hide grass in a car door when crossing the border.
We all remember the Cheech & Chong album: Los Cochinos (“The Pigs”)
One bottle within easy reach
A few bottles next to the driver seat
Behind the passenger seat
In the passenger door
In the door on the driver side
One case STAND-BY up front and one case in the back
Of course, I did not need to hide my MAX
But all compartments within reach of the driving seat were full. So when one was empty it was just to reach out for a new bottle while cruising down the country road looking for wildlife.
It was interesting with the “introduction/ information” meeting and I learned a whole lot of things about beavers. Of course, all the stuff I had studied before coming here, but I also learned that the beaver’s favourite tree is the Aspen. They can feel the smell from several kilometres away.
I also learned that the beavers let the wind blow down the tress after having cut the trunk.
If you take a few branches of Aspen and remove a little bit of the bark and put the branches down in to the soil you will soon have a beaver coming to gnaw on the branches.
We learn about beavers
Preparing the boats
We're ready to go
Here we go, the adventure begins
We will follow their boat
Common Gull/ Fiskmås
Common Gull
We continue towards the firs beaver house
Now we can see that there are beavers around
We reach the first beaver house
We reach the first beaver house
We continue out on the lake
More trees cut down by beavers
And we can see that they have been eating the bark
A Short Course on Beavers
No animal feasts on a larger entree than the beaver's common fare: trees. With nothing but its four front teeth, the beaver can cut down a small tree in minutes: However, when a tree is a bit larger in diameter, beavers prefer to cut the trunk to a point and then let the wind blow the tree down.
Bob Arnebeck's - A Short Course on Beavers
http://bobarnebeck.com/course.html
We reach the second beaver house
We reach the second beaver house
We reach the second beaver house
And we can see that it is a huge house
It was very interesting to see the house. Not at all what I had expected and for sure, I would not have known it was a beaver house if the Guide had not told me. And they can be huge, up to 15 meters. So the evening started very good, but still no beavers. But they don’t show up until it is starting to get dark.
And the area is full of trees that are cut down by the beaver/ wind. We also see tracks up the hills where the beavers are dragging the trees. And on top of this, it was a gorgeous evening with a perfect weather. I really enjoyed myself and this tour is highly recommended.
The beaver have been bussy cutting trees
It is a gorgeous evening
HANG ON! It looks like we're having a beaver in front of us
HANG ON! It looks like we're having a beaver in front of us
A beaver swimming in front of us
Another beaver
More beavers ahead
More beavers ahead
We are lucky to see a beaver on the beach
We see another beaver on the beach
Nu e d dags för val igen. Inte vill vi väl rösta på dom som styrt dom senaste 20 åren. Sverige är bara skit och allt bra kommer från utlandet! Det är Svenskarna som ska integreras i det nya Sverige! Beställ valsedlar nu!! Vi måste få ett slut på eländet! Valsedlar kan beställas HÄR
We continue our search for beavers
I had have a very nice evening and, well, if it would have been raining it would have been another story. But we had a gorgeous evening and I saw beavers for the first time in my life. I drove back to my hotel and I was back around midnight. The alarm is set to go off soon and I just checked my pictures before going to bed looking forward to my moose safari tomorrow night.
On the way back to the hotel
So, another adventure tomorrow, the day will be spent looking for birds and the evening will be spent in the forrest looking for moose. Click HERE
to find out what I find.