Re: [Paddlewise] Close encounters of the beaver kind

From: Joe Pylka <pylka_at_castle.net>
Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 00:33:52 -0400
> > I was paddling a small flooded tributary of the Connecticut River
yesterday
> > when a mother and cub beaver plopped into the water on the opposite
bank.  I
> > stopped and waited.  The cub vanished (into floatsam along the bank I
think)
> > but mom surfaced 30 feet or so in front of me and just lay in the water,
> > perpendicular to my line of travel.
        I've had an adult paddle along with me on a narrow river in North
Jersey for 100 yards or so.  Seemed to be curiosity rather than anything
confrontational.   There's also now one Beaver who lives along a canal in
the middle of Lambertville.  It's totally used to people and goes on feeding
or whatever within a few feet of the tourists...
        Now, Woodchucks are a different matter.  I never even thought of
them as being associated with water in any way but there've been a few
encounters.  Once, paddling a rarely run stream, two young ones saw me from
the bank, jumped in, and swam along with me until they were getting a little
too far from their homeground. On another occasion I was ferrying across a
river in flood and was surprised to see a woodchuck doing the same thing a
few yards from me...



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Received on Tue Apr 17 2001 - 23:16:44 PDT

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