Documenting the Diversity of Dallas/Fort Worth Urban Wildlife Since 2005
Beaver – Gator Bag Be Damned
The following observations took place in the same suburban park as a number of the earlier Beaver observations listed on this website.
After Beavers took down the majority of the ornamental trees in this Carrollton park, the neighborhood homeowners association arranged to have the trees replaced, and this time they took the additional precaution of protecting the trunks of the new trees with Gator Bags, and, in some places, poultry wire.
But, the Beavers soon found a weakness in the defense, and wasted no time in exploiting it.
As you can see in this photograph, heavy spring rains caused flooding which washed enough debris up against the trunk of this tree to provide a ramp of sorts that the Beavers wasted no time in exploiting. With the ramp of reeds and other refuse in place, the Beavers were able to access the tree trunk just above the protective Gator Bag, and they took the tree down over the course of a single night.
Here is a closeup of the Beaver’s handy work. Notice how the Beaver took the tree down by attacking the trunk immediately above the top of the Gator Bag. Also note the wood shaving collected around the base of the tree.
Two days later I found the tree in the condition you see in the photo above. The trunk of the tree had been chewed through a second time, leaving the small section of the trunk you see just to the left of the Gator Bag wrapped stump. The entire top section of the tree, including all of the upper limbs had been removed from the site by the Beaver.
After scouting around a bit, I discovered a few of the upper branches of the felled tree in the nearby creek, approximately 20 feet from where the Beaver took the tree down. Notice the branches in the foreground, and also against the reeds further back in the picture.
Here are two more branches that the Beaver had left at the water’s edge. These and the two other similar sized branches from the previous observation, were all that were left of the ample top of the felled tree. I assume the balance of the tree was either devoured by the beaver and/or added to the creature’s nearby dam.
