RCruz
01-28-2009, 09:07 PM
The resilience of animals never ceases to amaze me. It is not uncommon for me to find creatures in the most unusual places when I know no one else notices what's right in front of their face. Chicago is a miserable place to live for a non human. The population of the whole Chicago area is well over 4 million people and with people come all the crap we seem to enjoy. Endless concrete, polluted water, green lawns, roads, traffic all leave absolutely nothing for most living things to survive. So imagine my surprise to see a beaver family living on edge of the worlds busiest airport.
Each week I pass a ditch that runs along the West side of a 4 lane highway that borders the westside of O'Hare international airport. The other side of the road is bordered by endless blocks of warehouses. There are no rivers, creeks, or forests for miles and miles. Ive noticed this water filled ditch for the past year as I would sit at a stop sign to wait for the endless parade of traffic to ease just enough to get my truck back onto a road. Ive noticed that the ditch seems to vary in depth at various parts so I knew an obstruction had to be blocking the flow of water. Eventually I noticed a makeshift damn composed of dead cattail reeds. Its nothing big really, I have seen plenty of beaver dams over the years and they are usually impressive. So the jury was out on the cattail damn. I had to find the beavers lodge.
Trouble with beavers is they are kinda smart. Beavers need a home. They are the only other creature besides man that deliberately alter and change habitat to suit their own needs. The dam is just the beginning. The purpose of a beavers dam is to create water deep enough to prevent it from freezing to the bottom. They need this to build up a winter larder of fresh tree limbs and branches. They eat the thin living green area of tree limbs just below the bark. After they strip the limb of its nutrients they discard the limbs and branches as building materials in the dam and lodge. Tell tale signs of active beaver ponds has fresh bark stripped branches and sticks on the damn and lodge.
Once a beavers build a damn and create a pond they set up their lodge. Beaver lodges are like small islands made of sticks. They are raised mounds built of the discarded branches and limbs from the trees they have taken down and chewed apart. Inside the lodge the beavers have two entrance holes into the water. There is no other exit or entrance. Funny thing with beavers they can also burrow into the ponds bank and set up a lodge without the tree limbs. They tend to do this only where people are to hide their presence. They will never do this in bear country. Bears will dig them out of a bank. So in bear country beavers build extremely large lodges to prevent the bears from making them a meal. Chicago is not bear county.
Today was a miserable day. The 9th day of December has brought rain and snow causing lots of water running off frozen ground. Like Every Tuesday I find myself next to the beaver ditch waiting for traffic to clear. I noticed that the water was really high. as I turned onto the highway I watched for the beaver lodge that I knew would be coming up on my right. I figured it was abandoned. I was wrong.
As I came up upon the lodge I saw some figures sitting on top. Beavers are nocturnal they do not come out in the day unless something is wrong. There were beavers on the lodge so many of them I was shocked. I actually turned around to have another look. This beaver family was large.
Beavers mate for life. A pair keep their pond for themselves and their offspring. They are North Americas largest rodent and unlike most rodents their offspring are not born blind and helpless. Instead they are born fully furred and ready eat solid food within a few days. They don't have large litters usually 1 to 3 kits are born in late winter. At two years of age their father drives them out of their pond so they can leave and start families of their own.
My trip around the block allowed me to stop and count the stranded beavers. As I approached the lodge for the second time I saw 7 miserable beavers huddled together for warmth in the cold rain. Rising water had apparently flooded the inside of the lodge forcing them to relocate to its roof. Lucky for them they can ride out wet weather. Their fur is really dense and they groom in special water repellent oils to keep their skin dry.
I felt kinda sad as I moved on after I observed them in the cold rain. The larger parents were nibbling on some willow branches while their soon to be on their own offspring seemed shocked beyond reason. A litter of 5 is a lot for a pair of beavers. I have no clue how a rain swollen ditch across from O'Hare airport can support 7 beavers but it does nonetheless. I am starting to see that all sorts of living things common, rare and unknown can live undetected right under the nose of the so called smartest creature ever to exist.
Each week I pass a ditch that runs along the West side of a 4 lane highway that borders the westside of O'Hare international airport. The other side of the road is bordered by endless blocks of warehouses. There are no rivers, creeks, or forests for miles and miles. Ive noticed this water filled ditch for the past year as I would sit at a stop sign to wait for the endless parade of traffic to ease just enough to get my truck back onto a road. Ive noticed that the ditch seems to vary in depth at various parts so I knew an obstruction had to be blocking the flow of water. Eventually I noticed a makeshift damn composed of dead cattail reeds. Its nothing big really, I have seen plenty of beaver dams over the years and they are usually impressive. So the jury was out on the cattail damn. I had to find the beavers lodge.
Trouble with beavers is they are kinda smart. Beavers need a home. They are the only other creature besides man that deliberately alter and change habitat to suit their own needs. The dam is just the beginning. The purpose of a beavers dam is to create water deep enough to prevent it from freezing to the bottom. They need this to build up a winter larder of fresh tree limbs and branches. They eat the thin living green area of tree limbs just below the bark. After they strip the limb of its nutrients they discard the limbs and branches as building materials in the dam and lodge. Tell tale signs of active beaver ponds has fresh bark stripped branches and sticks on the damn and lodge.
Once a beavers build a damn and create a pond they set up their lodge. Beaver lodges are like small islands made of sticks. They are raised mounds built of the discarded branches and limbs from the trees they have taken down and chewed apart. Inside the lodge the beavers have two entrance holes into the water. There is no other exit or entrance. Funny thing with beavers they can also burrow into the ponds bank and set up a lodge without the tree limbs. They tend to do this only where people are to hide their presence. They will never do this in bear country. Bears will dig them out of a bank. So in bear country beavers build extremely large lodges to prevent the bears from making them a meal. Chicago is not bear county.
Today was a miserable day. The 9th day of December has brought rain and snow causing lots of water running off frozen ground. Like Every Tuesday I find myself next to the beaver ditch waiting for traffic to clear. I noticed that the water was really high. as I turned onto the highway I watched for the beaver lodge that I knew would be coming up on my right. I figured it was abandoned. I was wrong.
As I came up upon the lodge I saw some figures sitting on top. Beavers are nocturnal they do not come out in the day unless something is wrong. There were beavers on the lodge so many of them I was shocked. I actually turned around to have another look. This beaver family was large.
Beavers mate for life. A pair keep their pond for themselves and their offspring. They are North Americas largest rodent and unlike most rodents their offspring are not born blind and helpless. Instead they are born fully furred and ready eat solid food within a few days. They don't have large litters usually 1 to 3 kits are born in late winter. At two years of age their father drives them out of their pond so they can leave and start families of their own.
My trip around the block allowed me to stop and count the stranded beavers. As I approached the lodge for the second time I saw 7 miserable beavers huddled together for warmth in the cold rain. Rising water had apparently flooded the inside of the lodge forcing them to relocate to its roof. Lucky for them they can ride out wet weather. Their fur is really dense and they groom in special water repellent oils to keep their skin dry.
I felt kinda sad as I moved on after I observed them in the cold rain. The larger parents were nibbling on some willow branches while their soon to be on their own offspring seemed shocked beyond reason. A litter of 5 is a lot for a pair of beavers. I have no clue how a rain swollen ditch across from O'Hare airport can support 7 beavers but it does nonetheless. I am starting to see that all sorts of living things common, rare and unknown can live undetected right under the nose of the so called smartest creature ever to exist.