Cromwell Critter Cam: Beavers pair for life...

the dam. 19 May 2013.

I checked the dam today, and all is well. I have no evidence that the kits have been born yet. Of course, you can't prove a negative, can you? So it is possible that they have been.

Beavers are one of the few animals that pair for life. I found a nice description of their family life:

"Beaver usually live in family units consisting of the older mated pairs, young from the previous year, and young from the current season called kits. Breeding season takes place in late January or February in most states. Young from the previous year are about 22 months of age at this time and they are evicted from the colony to relocate and seek mates of their own. The gestation period of beaver is 107 days and the adult male and kits usually take up a temporary residence in a bank den while the new litter is being born in April, May or June. The birthing process may take several days, and 3 to 5 kits are a typical litter size. Beaver kits are fully furred when born, their eyes are open, and the incisor teeth are visable. Newborn beaver kits take to the water easily, and they might be swimming before they are one day old. Most adult beaver are monogamous, and stay with their mate throughout life." (http://www.nationaltrappers.com/beaver.html)

So we still wait for news. And wait.

While we wait, I got a nice daylight video of one of the beaver swimming. I enjoyed this for two reasons. 1--It's a great video. 2--the camera was tripped by a nice man mugging for the camera. At 7:48 pm on the 16th a nice man wearing a blue t-shirt with some stick figures running on it mugged for the camera. (I will not post the picture as I will not post any pictures of people.) While mugging, he tripped the camera, then walked away. By an amazing coincidence, the beaver decided to go for a swim while he walked away...

The rest is history.