An English beaver
Hey, England has beavers once again! Our native beavers were hunted to extinction in the sixteenth century but in the last ten years some Eurasian beavers have been "reintroduced" and they appear to be thriving. A lot has been said about the useful contributions that beavers might make to flood prevention.
When I was sixteen I switched secondary schools - moving to Beverley Grammar School in the East Yorkshire market town of the same name - Beverley. There I studied Art, English and Geography at A level but that is beside the point just now. What I mostly wanted to share with you is Beverley's coat of arms:-
Of course Britain is an island and I imagine that our native beavers were different from the Eurasian beavers now being "reintroduced" in small numbers. Is it even a reintroduction? Perhaps we should refer to what is happening as an introduction though I have not been able to confirm my suspicions about beavers of the past compared with these new beavers.
I wonder what someone who likes to study beavers is called? Perhaps a beaverologist? Anyway, I am sure that there are worse things that one might study. God Save The Beaver!
Beverley Grammar School badge on a plaque
There are a lot of beavers around here. In fact the area east of the city is called Beaver Hills. When we were driving through Elk Island National Park a few years ago we actually had to stop for beavers crossing the road. Only in Canada I'm thinking.
ReplyDeleteOf course I'm not addressing the other version of beavers or those who study beavers because I'm much too proper, SNORT!
It is estimated that there are six million beavers in Canada. That is a lot of beavers.
DeleteI’ve been Feeling weak and always feeling sleepy for some time which I went for a test and I was told i am diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Disease (ALS DISEASE) ever since then I've followed a wide variety of medical treatments, I have even combined with different pills and antibiotics without clear results. My health was deteriorating more and more. But thanks to a Herbal Doctor's herbs method that I found on the internet which has saved so many lives and also helped me to achieve the results i wanted, i knew from the beginning that this could help me after much learning and the cure Dr sent to me and which I began to follow the method from the Herbal Doctor called (Dr Aziba) and the results were wonderful: I recommend you to get in contact with him via Email: priestazibasolutioncenter@gmail.com and on WhatsApp: +2348100368288 for ALS, HPV, HSV, HERPES, Virginal Infection Cure etc.. DR is also available to help!
DeleteI’ve been Feeling weak and always feeling sleepy for some time which I went for a test and I was told i am diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Disease (ALS DISEASE) ever since then I've followed a wide variety of medical treatments, I have even combined with different pills and antibiotics without clear results. My health was deteriorating more and more. But thanks to a Herbal Doctor's herbs method that I found on the internet which has saved so many lives and also helped me to achieve the results i wanted, i knew from the beginning that this could help me after much learning and the cure Dr sent to me and which I began to follow the method from the Herbal Doctor called (Dr Aziba) and the results were wonderful: I recommend you to get in contact with him via Email: priestazibasolutioncenter@gmail.com and on WhatsApp: +2348100368288 for ALS, HPV, HSV, HERPES, Virginal Infection Cure etc.. DR is also available to help!
I’ve been Feeling weak and always feeling sleepy for some time which I went for a test and I was told i am diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Disease (ALS DISEASE) ever since then I've followed a wide variety of medical treatments, I have even combined with different pills and antibiotics without clear results. My health was deteriorating more and more. But thanks to a Herbal Doctor's herbs method that I found on the internet which has saved so many lives and also helped me to achieve the results i wanted, i knew from the beginning that this could help me after much learning and the cure Dr sent to me and which I began to follow the method from the Herbal Doctor called (Dr Aziba) and the results were wonderful: I recommend you to get in contact with him via Email: priestazibasolutioncenter@gmail.com and on WhatsApp: +2348100368288 for ALS, HPV, HSV, HERPES, Virginal Infection Cure etc.. DR is also available to help!
Beavers might help with flood prevention but when their dams burst I wonder how much water flows downstream. I didn't even know England once had beavers. I suppose there was serious bio security checks before the European beavers were introduced.
ReplyDeleteWell, you would hope so Andrew. If not we might be overrun with beavers in just a few years.
DeleteThere was a segment on a recent episode of Escape to the Country on these beavers that were being introduced. Can't remember where in the UK it was. Very interesting.
ReplyDeleteMostly in the south west Helen - Devon and Cornwall.
DeleteBeavers are an unmitigated nuisance here and the cause of way more flooding than they could ever prevent. We had to remove a dam because they had so much of our land flooded.
ReplyDeleteAs a side note that I know you'll appreciate: The town of Corry PA had the highest teenage pregnancy and high school drop out rate in Western Pennsylvania. David Letterman felt it might be tied to the fact that the high school mascot was the beaver.
Debbie, your second paragraph gives the expression "beavering away" a whole new meaning. Thanks for the laugh - not that teenage pregnancies are a laughing matter.
DeleteU
Sorry to hear that beavers can be a nuisance in your immediate area Debby.
DeleteIn wildlife films and photos (like yours above) beavers come across as alert, always busy (beavering away in more ways than one according to Debby above), eager, full of purpose, content. I suppose their long incisors are the reason they also remind me of rats. Yes, I do know rabbits and hares too have overly long front teeth - but, aesthetically speaking, those are balanced by the size of their ears.
ReplyDeleteSince you mention fur (make mine mink - the white is exquisite; to be expanded on another time) it makes you ponder, YP, why humans were only given skin and hair, not fur. Can you imagine? Hunting down our neighbour on account of them making a lovely coat or a rug in front of the fireplace. And vice versa - that's the scary bit. Scant comfort to furry animals - you may be warm now only to find yourself skinned later.
U
Now there's a thought to conjure with - massive human beavers with big orange front teeth!
DeleteIn my area, beavers are protected. For centuries they were hunted, and then of course rivers were straightened and polluted and their natural habitat shrank more and more. It is very rare to spot one in the wild, but their work can be seen in some of the smaller streams around here that have not been claimed as commercial waterways.
ReplyDeleteWell that is uplifting to learn that in your region there are still some beavers! Marvellous!
DeleteWell it is good that rivers are put under a more natural way of upkeep, we have had beavers introduced to a river a few miles away to stem the flooding in the town below. I think there will be a lot of debate as to their introduction, just like wolves up in Scotland. But wild boar in the Forest of Dean seems to be working.
ReplyDeleteMe I've got feral cats to deal with, contraception is sorely needed.
I wish they would reintroduce unicorns. I would love to see a unicorn in the wild.
DeleteI saw this on the news. It is fantastic, isn't it.
ReplyDeleteI took my dad shopping this morning and saw a whole shelf full of Bosh! Products with your sons happy smile beaming back at me. Well done Beavers and Bosh!
I bet that was in ASDA. Are you Blackburn Christina?
DeleteYes Asda. Not in Blackburn its too busy. I go to Clayton green. It's much less crowded.
DeleteCome on lass! Time for you to make your own blog! You would be doing your civic duty by raising the profile of Blackburn in the eyes of the blogging public. You could use a pseudonym - Fifi Lamar.
DeleteI wondered the same thing -- surely English beavers would be slightly different from North American ones? I wonder if there are still English beavers around, perhaps preserved in museums, for comparison and/or genetic analysis.
ReplyDeleteTrouble is the first beavers became extinct such a long time ago.
DeleteI hope they don't have a detrimental ecological effect, as did the introduced grey squirrel.
ReplyDeleteWell that has crossed my mind too.
DeleteI did not realize until lately that we have beavers right here in North Florida! Why didn't I know that? A woman I know posts pictures of beavers in the river right near her house which is only a few miles from where I live. What??!!
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I know that their pelts were highly prized for hat-making, especially, back in the early days of this country and wasn't it the French who were known for hunting them in Canada? I think so. It's a wonder any are left on this earth.
Like many animals, beavers have had a hard time because of human beings. Amazing that an intelligent and well-informed woman like yourself had not heard about local Floridian beavers.
DeleteWe have lots of beavers in this area. In fact, just down the road from our house at Jeffries Creek Park we got to see one up close one time...he or she smacked the water with that flat tail and it made a cracking sound like a gunshot!
ReplyDeleteWhat a thing to witness! Marvellous!
DeleteThey are amazing although they look like oversized rats. On the news last night they were were showing footage of one making its dam and on a recent Simon Reeve programme he was in Cornwall doing a piece about them.
ReplyDeleteI saw them both and that's partly what inspired this post ADDY.
DeleteRing of Bright Water has been reissued by Little Toller Books. A large durable paperback with foldback covers. The end poem about the animal daemon by Louis MacNeice is not attributed to MacNeice, one of my favourite writers.
ReplyDeleteThere is a biography of Gavin Maxwell by Douglas Botting.
Maxwell broke off his close friendship with the poet Kathleen Raine.
In her garden in England, after midnight, Kathleen incanted an elaborate curse on Maxwell, a cursing spell she had learned from the dark occult.
Gavin's cottage, Camusfearna, in Sandaig Bay in the Sound of Skye, went on fire, all the otters died, and Maxwell later he suffered a heart attack. His life was never the same again.
Kathleen Raine repented of what she had done as well she might.
Her book *Autobiographies* was published in 1971, my edition Skoob Books 1991.
Kathleen was in Dublin the day she learned of Gavin Maxwell's death. She writes at the end of her book:
*Over my head, on the evening of the day he died, a V-shaped flight of curlew had flown low, reminding me of Gavin's beloved greylag geese.*
The reason for bringing up otters is a simple one.
DeleteBeavers are highly evolved predators: Do they attack otters?
Sounds like a good theme for a film...Beavers versus Otters. My money is on the beavers.
DeleteDespite your lists usually exhaustive, Hamel(d), what of "Tarka, the Otter"? Hand me your handkerchief now. Actually, a tissue will do. More hygienic.
DeleteBetting man, are you, YP? Being out of my depth with both Beavers and Otters I'll pass.
From a female point of view (mine) I'd say that, in appearance, Beavers are the equivalent of Boris Johnson (dishevelled); whereas Otters are sleek.
U
No need to insult beavers like that Ursula!
DeleteHow do they know how to build dams? I mean, would you know if you were introduced into the wild?
ReplyDeleteGood point. Bred in the bone, I suppose. You know, a bit like humans and their grey mass. We can't help but "think" (HA!), putting pen to paper, finger to keyboard.
DeleteU
Instinct is a powerful force. How does a nestling know how to fly? How does a gorilla know which foliage to avoid? How does a first-time mother animal know how to raise her babies?
DeleteKnowing he was going into the wild, Yorky would imbibe some of that ayahuasca tea.
ReplyDeleteAnd Mother Ayahuasca would tell him how to build a dam and forage for food.
And if you believe that, you believe anything ...
I believe for every drop of rain that falls
DeleteA flower grows
I believe that somewhere in the darkest night
A candle glows
I believe for everyone who goes astray, someone will come
To show the way
I believe, I believe
It would be great for there to be an island just for the animals. I would love to see beavers building dams and people not hunting them.
ReplyDeleteLet the beavers hunt the people!
DeleteI’ve been Feeling weak and always feeling sleepy for some time which I went for a test and I was told i am diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Disease (ALS DISEASE) ever since then I've followed a wide variety of medical treatments, I have even combined with different pills and antibiotics without clear results. My health was deteriorating more and more. But thanks to a Herbal Doctor's herbs method that I found on the internet which has saved so many lives and also helped me to achieve the results i wanted, i knew from the beginning that this could help me after much learning and the cure Dr sent to me and which I began to follow the method from the Herbal Doctor called (Dr Aziba) and the results were wonderful: I recommend you to get in contact with him via Email: priestazibasolutioncenter@gmail.com and on WhatsApp: +2348100368288 for ALS, HPV, HSV, HERPES, Virginal Infection Cure etc.. DR is also available to help!
ReplyDeleteI’ve been Feeling weak and always feeling sleepy for some time which I went for a test and I was told i am diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Disease (ALS DISEASE) ever since then I've followed a wide variety of medical treatments, I have even combined with different pills and antibiotics without clear results. My health was deteriorating more and more. But thanks to a Herbal Doctor's herbs method that I found on the internet which has saved so many lives and also helped me to achieve the results i wanted, i knew from the beginning that this could help me after much learning and the cure Dr sent to me and which I began to follow the method from the Herbal Doctor called (Dr Aziba) and the results were wonderful: I recommend you to get in contact with him via Email: priestazibasolutioncenter@gmail.com and on WhatsApp: +2348100368288 for ALS, HPV, HSV, HERPES, Virginal Infection Cure etc.. DR is also available to help!
I’ve been Feeling weak and always feeling sleepy for some time which I went for a test and I was told i am diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Disease (ALS DISEASE) ever since then I've followed a wide variety of medical treatments, I have even combined with different pills and antibiotics without clear results. My health was deteriorating more and more. But thanks to a Herbal Doctor's herbs method that I found on the internet which has saved so many lives and also helped me to achieve the results i wanted, i knew from the beginning that this could help me after much learning and the cure Dr sent to me and which I began to follow the method from the Herbal Doctor called (Dr Aziba) and the results were wonderful: I recommend you to get in contact with him via Email: priestazibasolutioncenter@gmail.com and on WhatsApp: +2348100368288 for ALS, HPV, HSV, HERPES, Virginal Infection Cure etc.. DR is also available to help!
Did you know the beaver features on the obverse of the Canadian five cent coin?
ReplyDeleteI hope the beavers introduced to Britain thrive without becoming a nuisance.
Before I began Doctor Aziba natural penis enlargement Product I measured 4 Inches in erect length, and 3 inches in erect girth. While flaccid I measured 3.4 Inches long. I began using his product, slightly skeptical I admit, and just 2 weeks later I was very happy with my progress. I measured 7.5 inches erect length and 6.5 inches erect girth, and 5.5 inches flaccid length. I was actually quite shocked at the huge gains I’d had, and continued using the product regularly, sticking to the usage schedule rigorously. After about 2-3 weeks I am 8.2 Inches in erect length and 8.1 Inches in erect girth. I am also 7.2 inches long while flaccid. This has had a huge impact on my life, not only has my sex life improved greatly, I feel much more confident and proud. Dr Aziba Natural Penis Enlargement works! and you can as well reach out to him on any of these cure for ALS, HPV, HSV, HIV, HERPES, Virginal Infection You can Get in Contact with his via Email: (Priestazibasolutioncenter@gmail.com ) or WhatsApp him via contact +2348100368288 His the solution you've been searching !
ReplyDelete