Bears | Skunks
| Deer | Beavers
Make sure you don’t contribute to resident bears
becoming "garbage" bears. Most conflicts between
bears and people are linked to careless 
handling
of food or garbage. Don’t let your carelessness
cause the unnecessary death of a bear. Learn to live responsibly
with wildlife!
Black bears eat almost anything. They will eat human food,
garbage, hummingbird food, and pet and livestock food
when available. Once a bear has found the easily accessible,
consistent food source that human settlements can offer,
it may overcome its wariness of people and visit regularly,
increasing the chance of a human/bear encounter. You and
your neighbors can make a difference. Your actions may
prevent the unnecessary death of a bear!
Make your property safe by keeping garbage out of reach
and smell of bears. Use bear-proof trash containers. Be
sure garbage cans are emptied regularly. Periodically
clean garbage cans to reduce residual odor – using
hot water and chlorine bleach or by burning. Store trash
in a bear proof enclosure. Contact the Division of Wildlife
for designs.
If you have pets, do not store their food or feed them
outside. Clean your BBQ grill of grease and store inside.
Hang bird seed, suet and hummingbird feeders on a wire
between trees instead of on your deck or porch. Bring
all bird feeders in at night.
Do not put fruit, melon rinds and other tasty items
in mulch or compost piles.
Most bears sighted in residential areas within bear
habitat do not cause any damage. If a bear doesn’t
find abundant food, it will move on.
Clean outdoor BBQs thoroughly after each use.
Info courtesy of Colorado Division of Wildlife. For more
information, please visit their website.
Other suggested links:
Bear-Proofing Your Property
http://www.defenders.org/wildlife/bears/bearcountryhtml.html
Bear Safety
http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Falls/9200/bear_safety.html
Secure garbage containers and eliminate their odors. Use
a small amount of ammonia or cayenne pepper in the garbage
to discourage scavenging.
Learn more about them
http://www.projectwildlife.org/living-skunks.htm
Guide to numerous links
http://www.striped-skunk.com/striped-skunks-management.htm
Eliminating Spray Odor (courtesy of
projectwildlife.org)
Skunk spray in human eyes is extremely irritating and
can cause temporary blindness, but no permanent damage.
Flush eyes liberally with cold water to ease irritation.
Wash skin with carbolic soap and water, tomato juice,
or vinegar or Massengil douch. You may be able to save
clothing by washing repeatedly in vinegar water and/or
hanging it outside for a month or so before dry-cleaning.
For the worst sprays, however, it may be best to discard
or burn the clothing.
When your pet is sprayed, the quicker
you take action, the more completely you can remove the
odor. Wash your pet with tomato juice, Massengil douch,
or diluted vinegar to counteract the chemical makeup of
the skunk spray. Skunk Off and similar preparations containing
neutroleum alpha, available from some pet stores, are
effective.
Skunk Smell Remedy: 1 quart 3% peroxide, 1/4
c baking soda, 1 tbs liquid hand soap. Mix all three ingredients
together. Shampoo animal thoroughly keeping out of eyes,
nose and mouth. Soak 5 minutes. Rinse well.
Learn
more about them
http://www.desertusa.com/feb97/du_muledeer.html
http://www.projectwildlife.org/living-deer.htm
Deer eating garden and landscaping plants
"Fence or share" is the general rule. Deer fencing
should be 8 feet high if possible and made of high-tensile
wire, mesh fencing, or electric wiring; placement may
be angled to prevent the animal from jumping over. If
fencing the entire area is too expensive, fencing individual
plants is effective.
Planting deer-resistant
plants can be an alternative, although none is totally
guaranteed, especially when drought conditions constrict
food sources.
by Joseph A. Rivas
Springtime in Pagosa Lakes is a time of life and a time
of rebirth. The streams are swollen as they labor to carry
the remains of winter. The streams also have eager and persistent
fish trying to spawn in the turbulent and cold water. The
buds on trees, which have been dormant since Fall are swollen
too. However, the last thing that stirs in our heads is
the swollen bellies of the female Castor Canadensis, or
more commonly known as the beaver.
Many lakefront property owners may awake this spring to
find their poplars and silver maples reduced to a small
stub. This work was probably done by a beaver and left no
letter of appreciation for the generous gift. What is a
beaver and what does it eat? What are babies called? What
is the beaver's reproduction rate? Where are these beavers
coming from? How can a property owner protect trees vulnerable
to a beaver? These are a few questions that property owners
frequently ask. In the following article I will answer these
questions and hopefully provide some insight to the life
of the beaver.
THE BEAVER
Upon the arrival of the first European settlers it is estimated
that the beaver population of North America was between
60 and 400 million. At the turn of the century, the beaver
population was nearly decimated from most parts of the eastern
United States and greatly declined in numbers throughout
Canada and the western United States. Whitemen exported
50,00 skins annually until, by 1800, the beaver was extinct
east of the Mississippi. Legislation has protected the beaver
and today 175,000 pelts are harvested annually. Because
humans have destroyed the landscape and drastically changed
many parts of wetlands, beaver populations can never return
to what they once were. Today beaver populations are on
the rise, and in most cases it seems like they all live
in or around Pagosa Lakes. The United States' population
is between six and twelve million beaver.
People find the beaver fascinating for many reasons. One
of the reasons why beavers are so fascinating is that they
can drastically change the landscape. Native Americans called
the beaver the "sacred center" of the land because
they create wetlands and habitats for other mammals, fish,
turtles, frogs, birds and ducks. Wetlands are containers
of life biodiversity that can only rival tropical rain forests.
Wetlands are called the "earth's kidneys" because
they cleanse the water by filtering up to 90% of silt and
pollutants are greatly reduced due to biochemical reactions.
A team of scientists recently rated wetlands as the world's
most valuable land-based ecosystem, worth $8,000/ acre per
year in natural resources. Not only is the beaver is a "keystone"
species, but the beaver builds and maintains wetlands for
free!
DESCRIPTION
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Castordae
Genus: Castor
The beaver is North America's largest rodent. The beaver
is usually short and squat, with are large rump. Each foot
has five toes that are webbed and aid in swimming. The second
toe on each hind foot has an extra claw to help the beaver
groom. The beaver have small, short ears that seem to hear
the trickling of water for miles. The most prominent feature
has to be the long flat tail. The tail can usually be heard
slapping the lake's surface just before the sunsets. Beavers
use the tail for many reasons and many use the tail to stand
up on their hind feet. The main use of the tail is used
as a way of packing mud, silt and debris onto the dam.
The beaver has two different types of hair: a long tough
hair (guard hair) that grows through a shorter softer layer
of hair. This "underlayer" of fur helps insulate
the beaver from water in cold or wet weather. Beaver's outer
hair is a dark chestnut brown. The "underlayer"
is usually a softer, reddish tinted brown. The head and
undersides are slightly lighter the rest of the body. The
beaver is armed with chisel-sharp incisors and powerful
jaw muscles. The two incisors in each haw grow continuously
as they are worn away. A beaver can "down' a five-inch
diameter willow in three minutes, and a six-inch birch in
ten minutes. The largest tree cut was a record cottonwood
tree that was 37 inches in diameter and 110 feet tall. The
beavers' chewing force is 176 lbs. per square inch compared
to man's chewing force of 88 lbs. per square inch.
DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT
The beaver's distribution is the entire North American
Continent except for the extreme regions of Canada, the
deserts of the southwest United States Mexico and Florida.
Beavers are almost entirely aquatic. While beavers are
most at home in the water, they are capable of traveling
on land. Many travel on land to reach nearby trees. The
beaver is awkward and slow on land, and are not able to
move as gracefully. A single lake usually consists of a
family group living in burrow in banks or in a lodge made
of mud, stones and trees. Access to the lodge or borrow
is usually under water for protection from predators. Usually,
the lodge is between eight and 12 feet in diameter and has
heights of three feet, but a can be found as large as 16
feet by seven feet high.
Food
The front incisors of the beaver are deceiving in that
one to rip flesh or tear flesh. Despite the large front
teeth of the beaver, these animals are herbivores. Commonly
the beaver eat the bark of hardwoods such as poplar, birch,
cherry, willow, maple and alder. Aspen and pondweeds are
their favorite natural foods. In some cases the beaver is
known to eat apples.
REPRODUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT
Beavers are monogamous and tend to stay with one partner,
but if a mate dies the other will find a new partner. Adults
breed in January and February. At about three years old
the young become receptive to breeding. Family groups consist
of two adults, several two year olds and the young of the
current year. The gestation period is around 128 days. In
April and May, the kits are born. The average litter is
four. The kits swim within a few hours of birth. The kits
are weaned in about one month. The young are forced out
of the colony by two years. Beavers that are forced to leave
the colony will often travel downstream from the family
pond. There they will start a new lodge, find a mate and
start a new life of their own. This can cause a chain of
ponds or lodges down stream as successive generations of
beavers build their way down.
Vulnerable Trees
When beavers move-in the best defense is education about
how to protect your trees so that they will not be vulnerable
to a beaver attack. Beavers prefer to eat clover, and other
herbaceous vegetation during warm weather, instead of green
bark (cambium) of trees. In areas such as Pagosa Lakes where
winters can be harsh, the beaver will prepare an underwater
food cache of branches and small trees. Because one beaver
colony builds several lodges, the number of lodges is not
a reliable way to estimate the population. Below are some
effective and inexpensive methods to protect your trees
Cylindrical cages are usually made with chicken wire, hardware
cloth, or 2" X 4" welded wire fencing, about four
feet high. Encircle the trunk; leave a space of six inches
or more between the tree and the fence. Connect the two
ends using bailing wire or cut every other horizontal wire
and bend into hooks. Fastening a 2" x 2" piece
of lumber to connect the wire together is also effective.
Anchor the cage to the ground with lengths of heavy wire
or tent stakes. I feel this is the most effective and inexpensive
method to deter beavers.
Paint with Sand
A new method to prevent tree damage involves coating tree
trunks with a sand and paint mixture. Be careful for this
method may damage saplings. To make this mixture use 2/3
cup of masonry sand to one quart of latex paint. Mix well
and apply before the mixture dries. Paint the trunks about
three to four foot high. The paint can be clear or color-matched
to match the trees.
Low Fencing
Where trees are grouped and need protection, fencing may
be the most practical way to protect them. I would suggest
to try the cylindrical method first. Beavers are poor climbers
and a 3 to 4 foot fence can be a permanent deterrent. Please
check with the Department of Covenant Compliance before
constructing a fence.
With the increasing amount of homebuilding next to our
lakes, the odds are that a beaver may visit your property
and fall one of your trees. The beaver will continue to
occupy every niche available to them, and they will reach
out and exceed carrying capacity throughout many parts of
their former range by the turn of the next century. Beavers
are most active in the morning and late in the evening.
With this information in hand, hopefully your trees will
survive another spring here in Pagosa Lakes. If you are
having a problem with a beaver please contact Larry Lynch
at the Pagosa Lakes Property Owner's Association Administration
Office at (970) 731-5635, extension 25.
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