Have you ever watched an animal sleep? I used to watch my dog sleep. He slept soundly, but sometimes a sound or a smell or a dream would wake him up. He would look around a little to reassure himself that all was well and then would put down his head and go back to sleep.
Yesterday, I did a posting on a trio of North American beavers (Castor canadensis) that had been temporarily flooded out of their lodge and were sleeping on dry land a short distance from their home. The general response to the photo in that posting was that the beaver seemed peaceful and content (and cute!) when sleeping.
Today, I am posting a few photos of the occasions when one of the beavers woke up and looked around, much like my dog used to do. This is actually not the same beaver that was featured yesterday, although part of this beaver was visible in the photo yesterday. This beaver was the one on which the other beaver was leaning as it snuggled.
The first photo shows a pretty alert beaver, leaning on a stump around which the beavers were sleeping. I like the details that you can see of the fur and of the front paw. I was on a boardwalk at my local marshland park when I took these photos and was looking slightly down at the beavers. I was so close that I did not even have to use the full length of my zoom lens and, for example, shot the first photo with my lens at a focal length of 135mm.
The second shot is somewhat similar to the first, but it shows part of the beaver’s tail. It was interesting to see how the beaver’s tail was tucked under the beaver when it was sleeping. I somehow had always assumed the tail was rigid—it seems to be reasonably flexible.
The final image today is not quite as sharp as the first two, but I like it because of the way that it shows both a front and back paw, as well as the tail. The beaver also has a tousled look and somehow unfocused eyes, looking a lot like most of us do when we first wake up.
I am still going over my photos and may post a few more, so stay tuned. I feel really lucky that I was able to see these beavers in this kind of situation in the wild and managed to capture it well enough in photos to be able to share part of the experience with all of you.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
Beautiful. What a luxury to get so close to them!
It is definitely a luxury to be able to get shots like this at 135mm. The only challenge I had was the relatively limited light and the fact that I was shooting in between the slats of a railing that was in between me and where the beavers were located. Normally you can’t get so close to a sleeping animal without waking them up, but once again the boardwalk through the marsh really helped.
Wonderful that you could be so close and they do not seem disturbed by your presence.
I think that they were just trying to get some sleep. The fact that I was above them may also have helped in not immediately alerting them to my presence, which they did not seem to find at all threatening. There were also loud kids passing by and they were equally undisturbed by them.
Careful these guys can get a bit difficult and bite! Great shots and great opportunity.
I’m just amazed that these beavers let you get that close. I’ve spent many years trying to get shots of these elusive, shy critters.
Wonderful close-ups! What a treat to see them like this. You can practically count eyelashes!
Thanks, Sue. The opportunity to get these shots was totally unexpected and I am glad that I was able to take advantage of my god fortune.
[…] If you missed the earlier postings on my amazing close-up encounter withthe three sleeping North American Beavers (Castor canadensis), check out my earlier postings—Snuggling beaver and Restive beaver. […]