OkcPets Magazine January 2024

28 OKC Pets • January / February 2024 many as four kits. The youngsters remain with the parents for as long as two years, with the older offspring helping to rear their younger siblings. So a beaver family can have eight to ten members. Beavers Are a Keystone Species North American beavers are a keystone species. The term “keystone species” comes from the stone in an arch that prevents the arch from falling — the keystone. Remove the keystone from the arch, and the entire arch collapses. A keystone species is one on which an ecosystem and its inhabitants depend. Remove the keystone species, and just as in the case of a stone arch, the eco- system collapses or is changed drastically. Many of the species in an environment — including grasses, trees, plants, aquatic species, insects, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals — cannot survive without the keystone species and the ecosystem services it provides. Some keystones species are predators, such as wolves, which keep populations of elk and deer sustainable. When wolves are extirpated, elk and deer populations in- crease. Those ungulates need to forage, and overbrowsing of trees and shrubs occurs, resulting in erosion, loss of shade, and loss of habitat. Keystone species can also be prey such as prairie dogs, plants such as the saguaro cactus, or mutualists — two species with a mutually beneficial relationship that also benefits the broader environment — such as pollinators, as in bees and plants. North American beavers are a key- stone species because they are ecosystem engineers. Beavers create or enhance freshwater habitats, including wetlands, through their building activities. A wide variety of creatures thrives in beaver ponds and their associated wetlands — insects, spiders, frogs, turtles, fish, other aquatic life, ducks, geese, herons, rails, bitterns, songbirds, owls, otters, and others. Beavers Benefit Humans Too The habitats that beavers create bene- fit humans too. Beaver activities help maintain the water table that human life depends on. Because their dams and lodges slow water flow, they provide time for water to recharge. The slowing of water flow through beaver-engineered areas also mitigates the effects of catastrophic flooding and wildfires. Areas managed by beavers are shown to sustain significantly less damage. The wetlands that beavers create help to filter and trap sediment and excess nitrogen and nutrients (caused by fertil- izers and pet and yard waste) common in stormwater runoff. If those chemicals are not prevented from flowing into ponds and lakes, they cause algae blooms, which diminish water quality and deplete the supply of oxygen to fish and other aquatic species. This beaver-built filtration system improves the quality of water as it travels through the watershed and prevents the die-off of fish, amphibians, and reptiles that depend on healthy water. Because of their diversity and abun- dance of foliage, beaver-engineered areas sequester substantial amounts of carbon from the atmosphere — carbon that causes climate change, leading to extreme weath- er, including heat waves, out-of-season droughts, floods, and fires. People’s Intolerance of Beavers Despite the incredible benefits that beavers provide to the environment and to a wide range of plant and animal species, includ- ing humans, beavers often find them- selves on the losing end of conflicts with humans. When beavers were reintroduced into Oklahoma, plans were not created to help landowners manage beaver behavior that was found to be intolerable or destruc- tive. When a property owner does not like the effects of beavers’ ecosystem building, the animals are destroyed. Commonly trapped in underwater body-grip or torso-hold traps, beavers are simultaneously crushed while being slowly drowned. On land, leg-hold traps are used. These clamp onto the beaver’s leg, hold- ing the animal in agony. Although some people check traps regularly, many allow the animals to languish for days and even- tually succumb to starvation. The beaver lodges are indiscriminately bulldozed or blown up. It is often because of those activities that WildCare Oklahoma receives beavers into care. Orphaned baby beavers are discovered because their parents and older siblings have been killed. In some cases, beavers survive the traps and are maimed and brought to WildCare for medical care. Since 2015, WildCare has admitted nearly 50 beavers for care. Managing the Effects of Beaver Activities Many effects of beaver activities can be managed. First, people can choose to avoid living near permanent bodies of water. It’s back to nature for this beaver, which was released fromWildCare after successful rehabilitation. Photo courtesy of WildCare Oklahoma.