April 9th, 2006
the slap
This afternoon, while hiking along a creek, we caught sight of a large Beaver resting under some tall White Pines a few feet above the shore. Periodically, it would groom itself, scratching and ruffling through its coat with its front paws. We watched for a couple of minutes until it became aware of our presence and slid into the water. It then swam in long loops in the fast moving water just above a set of large culverts which carry the flow under a roadway. I shot several photos while it swam, the image below being about the best. The Beaver approached me a couple of times, and then, on one of its passes, it gave the water a big slap with its tail and dove under for a couple of seconds before resurfacing and swimming closer to me. I captured the slap on my digital camera and have converted it into a QuickTime movie (.mov file) which is about 1.9MB. As usual for these kinds of movie clips, it’s not terrific, but might be of interest to someone who has never been around a Beaver when it gives the water a slap with its tail (hope it works!). The clip has sound, so the slap can be heard above the rush of the water.
Tags: Beaver, Castor canadensis