Monday 3 December 2018

Beaver Tree


    The other day when I was cutting through the grove of trees beside the Fraser River, I came upon the remains of a Cottonwood sapling that had been gnawed off by a beaver.  Beaver trees are relatively rare around here unless you are close to one of their houses, but this was just along the river, so I guess the beaver was just swimming past when it got hungry.  
    I also thought it was an unusual find because except for a handful of wood chips (you can just see them  on the ground close to the base of the stump) there was nothing left of the sapling.  My guess is that the beaver must have dragged rest of the tree down to the river to eat where it could be eaten more safely.  If that is what the beaver did, it must have been a bit of a struggle to get the tree through all of the thick grove of trees.  
    The only other solution to the disappeared tree was that the beaver ate the whole thing in place , which didn’t seem logical because there was nothing left; neither leaves or small branches.  It must have dragged it away to eat it in the river.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant.ca

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