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I wish to take issue with your comments about beaver in your October 9, 2021, issue. You stated that beaver are nocturnal. This is not so; it is common to see them active during the day if one watches from a distance. Then you cite the Little Medical School of Ottawa as a reference that beaver do not cut trees for food. According to their website, that school is designed to teach very small children–hardly a place to find adult level scientific information. Yes, they do use tree branches for dam and lodge construction and maintenance. However, they also use the small ones for food year around. Tubers and rhizomes of aquatic plants comprise only a portion of the summer diet. Then you state that they store branches on the muddy bottom below their lodges for winter food. In reality, the winter food pile is not under the lodge, it is a few, to several, yards away from the lodge.
Next, I will refer to your comment regarding antler velvet below the photo of a bull moose in the July 3, 2021, issue. You stated that the velvet nourishes the antler bone. It does not. The book “Antler Development in Cervidae” (Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute) (1983) (480 pages) defines velvet as “This is highly innervated skin covering the growing antler.” This means that the velvet provides only the strength and support needed to keep the very soft tips of the developing antler from deviating from their designed course.
Bill Peterson,
Grand Marais
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