r/Beavers

Yes you read that right. I’m trying to investigate a hunch of mine. For the last few months I’ve been researching the possibility of beavers south of Fallbrook in San Diego County. This search has sent me to dozens of papers and articles. What I’ve found is honestly surprising. First I went with hunches, and I followed the sweet water and began to learn about Beaver Hollow. Beaver Hollow as far as I can tell has been named that since 1903. Kinda an odd name for an area if beavers are not present. Even more it turns out that because of the name it is often stated by researchers that this could’ve been where a thriving beaver population existed. Further down the river on Google earth I found some suspicious looking pond structures but nothing that seemed definite IMO. So after my visual hunch search I set out for info and found it.

In 1944 it was cited that beavers can be found in the Cuyamaca mountains and sweetwater river. These beavers specifically are stocked and placed by CA Fish and Game. The stocking records get confusing though since the stated creek where the release happened doesn’t exist…. It says Caresito Creek but I couldn’t find that anywhere. Maybe Carrasita Creek? But that isn’t really in the same place as where it’s cited the beavers were located. After more digging I believe I found all I can. That’s the end of the record. We have no known sources stating current beavers have been seen since. But they HAD to go somewhere… right?

So that brings me to this post. I can’t find anymore info online and I’ve been looking. If anyone here has heard of something or seen potential evidence of beavers outside the Santa Margarita River but still in San Diego County let me know! I’d love to further my side project.

I’ve provided some links of the papers I’ve read in the comments. I apologize if I have poor grammar in this post.

hope this increases the research on how to save the beavers infected with the virus properly and remove the virus from the primary environment that beaver lived

Joshua Tabora, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources’ furbearer biologist, told WTOP, “This is not an animal that’s going to seek out conflict unless something is really wrong.”

Something was really wrong with the two beavers who bit people at Cunningham Falls State Park. Both tested positive for rabies. The beaver in the third attack at Seneca Creek State Park was not found, but presumed rabid.

The sudden "rabid beaver epidemic" in MD and NJ feels less like public safety and more like a convenient excuse to clear nuisance dams

​Is anyone else watching how state wildlife agencies are handling beavers lately and feeling like the narrative is doing some heavy lifting?

​Look at what’s played out across Maryland (Cunningham Falls) and New Jersey (Lake Henry). The moment a conflict occurs, local agencies roll out the ultimate PR trump card: Rabies. Once that word hits a local news headline, any public pushback against lethal removal, trapping, or destroying lodges completely evaporates. Its well known states hate beavers, but being a protected species they are usually limited in what they can do about it.

Beavers, like other rodents , are very rare to carry rabies. Before the NJ beavers incident, rabies HAS NEVER BEEN found in a beaver. Both attacks in MD and NJ the people were encroaching on the beavers dam where beavers are naturally protective. Not to mention the insanely fast reaction times to trap, kill, and test the beavers (all that in the NJ attack happened in less than a day :/?) This is setting a worrying precedent, that the minute they want to do waterway work, a beaver can suddenly have rabies and be disposed of without due process.

​TL;DR: Rabies is real(but very unlikely in rodents, not to mention aquatic rodents...), but it's also the most effective PR cover a state agency can use to wipe out "inconvenient" beaver populations without triggering public outrage over wetland destruction.

"Sherri Tippie wasn't a biologist, and she wasn't an outdoor person either. Her part in that story started small. One day in 1985, she was watching the local evening news when a story came on about a beaver that was on a golf course in Aurora Colorado. The beaver had been chewing down trees, and wildlife officials were going to kill it. She couldn't accept that. She called around town until she found a new home for the beaver, despite never having handled a wild animal before."

Sprout is healing up and more research on Stormy is upcoming on many aspects of her age also why only Buttercup is staying only with her, also to see if Stormy is still able to reproduce after a age limit.