What predators at Huntley Meadows Park are powerful enough to kill an adult beaver? Could this North American Beaver (Castor canadensis) have died of natural causes? Why was its body more than half a mile from the water?
The bright orange incisors and the large flat tail make identification of the body easy, but the cause of death is a mystery. A trail runner pointed out the carcass to me shortly after I spotted a Black Vulture this past weekend, which explains why the vulture was hanging around. (Check out my earlier posting Black Vulture in a tree to see photos of this somewhat creepy bird.)
It was interesting to see the reactions of different park visitors to these questions when I posted them to a community Facebook page. Some immediately assumed that coyotes, which have been spotted in the park, were responsibleand focused on the size and ferocity of these predators. Others spoke of disease or about the complex social structures of the beavers and how teenage beavers are kicked out of the lodge at a certain point in time and forced to fend for themselves.
Some readers simply used emojis, including one with tears. Somehow the loss of this industrious herbivore with human-like paws touches many of us deeply, reminding us of the fragility and preciousness of our own lives.
R.I.P., beautiful creature of God.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
My kids would love to find this on a walk. We often find deer carcasses so a beaver would be something new. Last week they brought home a dead frog so they could “autopsy” it. We’d much prefer to encounter a living beaver, of course, but death is part of life and part of a functioning and thriving ecosystem so we are all about learning about death in nature too.
This reminds me of a beaver carcass I found along a trail not too far from the shore of Clopper Lake in Seneca Creek State Park, a few years ago. I had the same questions: why? and why here, in plain view of the trail? When an animal is dying, it generally finds a private spot to do it. Does this mean that the beaver died suddenly? But if it was a predator, wouldn’t the predator have mangled the carcass?
This also reminds me to appreciate the scavengers, which clean up the environment by consuming the carcasses which would otherwise overwhelm the landscape!
Lot of questions and few answers. The only thing I know for sure is that the vultures were taking advantage of having found the dead body (it was beginning to sme).