Winter 2023 Member Mailer
Cover:
Location: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
Leaving It To Beaver?
The Conundrum of the Keystone Engineer
- Top Right Page:
Vintage 1930s artist’s impression drawing of what a beaver lodge looks like from inside - Bottom right page:
Highstead Pond Beaver Lodge - Inserts from left to right:
Beaver with orange teeth
Beaver (Castor canadensis) feeding on herbaceous vegetation
A wild beaver, “Castor canadensis,” holding a stick that he is chewing on with his front foot
Highstead photo of beaver work on tree
Wildlands
Highstead Pond and Surrounding Forest
Saving Native Plants
Seeding a Conservation Crusade
Right Side Page Left to Right:
- Ecotype seed packets
- Joe Pye in bloom
End Notes: 4 interesting facts about the beaver
- Modern Beaver Skull beside Ice Age Giant Beaver
Modern Beaver Skull (left) Giant Beaver Skull (right)
New York State Museum
Is the Ice Age Giant Beaver (Castoroides ohioensis) an actual specimen or a model?
‘Yes, and it is the actual first ever recovered skull of a giant beaver. It was found in Clyde, NY, and described in the 1840s. There was an earlier set of fossils of this species found in the late 1830s, which is why the species is called Castoroides ohioensis, but that Ohio specimen is now lost to science. So, historically, this is the historically-oldest specimen in date of recovery too.’
Robert S. Feranec, Ph.D.
Director, Research & Collections Division
Curator of Pleistocene Vertebrate Paleontology
New York State Museum - Photo courtesy of Idaho Fish and Gam
attached additional photo - An engraving depicting a man wearing a beaver hat
Dated 19th century - Beaver Pendant
by Haida artist Derek White.
Photo courtesy of: www.spiritsofthewestcoast.com
