r/NonPoliticalTwitter • u/Rabbidraccoon18 • May 16 '26
Animals What goes on inside the mind of a beaver?
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u/HistorysWitness May 16 '26
Beavers are kinda of magical. We have a pond out front that my mom put golden rods in 30 years ago. They took over and there was always an island in it. No matter what backhoe we got nothing was ever big enough to get that island out. A beaver showed up outta no where last summer. Literally had to walk there from whereever he came from. He eliminated all the goldenrods and made his home with them. Then shored up the dyke. Lived thru the winter and then peaced out to wherever he was heading. It was a miracle
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u/_AnalTwinkJesus_ May 16 '26
Had a bank by my pond I wanted to clear for more diverse tree species and a walking path. Was taking me ages to fell the trees and clean it.
Then, two years ago, some beavers showed up like, "got you, bro!" And took the rest of the trees and brush out for me.
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u/BumblebeeDirect May 16 '26
It's the sound. Yknow how you hear nails on a chalkboard and instinctively throw a rock at them? It's like that but with sticks
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u/themightystef May 16 '26
The way they tested/discovered this is amazing. Researchers just put a bluetooth speaker playing the sound of flowing water in the middle of a forest but near a river thay had beavers. No actual flowing water within some distance.
They built a dam on top of the speaker.
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u/forlackoflead May 16 '26
And now we can use beavers for natural flood control.
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u/demon_fae May 17 '26
They did an experiment a while back, reintroducing beavers to Yellowstone National Park. They had obviously figured that putting beavers back in a place that used to have beavers but didn’t anymore would be a good thing. They weren’t expecting such a massive improvement in the health of literally every single monitored species in the park within just a few years. Just from a small breeding population of beavers, the whole park got visibly healthier and more stable.
There used to be beavers over nearly all of North America-basically if it wasn’t ice or desert it had beavers. All evidence points to them having been there long enough that every single ecosystem evolved around having beavers/proto-beavers managing the waterways. Think about that-every little creek or stream or river narrow enough for a stick-and-mud dam was managed by these fluffy little dudes, and everyone else was absolutely counting on them.
Urbanization and overhunting have reduced them to a few small, isolated populations. And guess what? All our small rivers have gotten unpredictable and flood-prone, all our riparian zones have gotten delicate and easily damaged.
We should probably add more beavers. Beavers are nice.
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u/Equivalent-Bit2891 May 16 '26
I feel like wood or concrete is still a better alternative than squishy furry teeth puppets but what do I know
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u/Kazmania21 May 16 '26
Beavers have evolved over however many millions of years to create these dams. Humans have only a couple thousand of years on dams. Idk if concrete is better, but the beavers are tried and tested.
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u/Equivalent-Bit2891 May 17 '26
I just don’t see a bunch of squishy furry teeth puppets sitting still long enough to build a whole wall out of them
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u/DangitThatHurt May 17 '26
Well, building dams for totally different reasons so better is a relative term.
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u/StarHammer_01 May 17 '26
Flood control isnt just about stopping water. A big part of it is slowing down water so that it has time to get absorbed into the ground.
Are are actually artifical bever dams out of loose sticks and fallen trees for flood control for that purpose. Infact some of these fallen trees even get chained in place so they don't get moved downstream.
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u/Landlocked_WaterSimp May 18 '26
I googled this some time ago because it found it so intriguing. The only case of beavers purposefully being introduced somewhere to build a dam in a specific place/ for flood control that i could find was like a single municipality in britain IIRC. Lots of 'fortunate circumstances' though.
But if you know of more examples please let me know - i find the topic quite interesting but i could find very little about it online.
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u/BeMyBrutus May 17 '26
This is fascinating. It's amazing what evolution can produce. I imagine the first proto-beaver being super neurotic about running water, and its genes working so well they took over. It's like a human having bad OCD, but it actually being a net positive.
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u/sclarke27 May 17 '26
Beavers were just mad that some random human left a noisy speaker behind and decided to shut the speaker up.
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u/SayTheLineBart May 16 '26
That’s wild, beavers are little autists with sensory sensitivity.
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u/miaogato May 16 '26
that actually tracks ngl they build entire dams, sometimes better than us just for the sake of "SHUT UUUUUUP WATEEEERRRR"?
They are a healthy, lively, autist
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u/Forsaken-Face1827 May 16 '26
As the beaver stands triumphant above its pile of wood, having finally stopped the pesky water, it says:
"It's about dam time."
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u/Khurasan May 16 '26
I definitely hate the sound of water, but only if it's being poured into a container. Like how the pitch raises toward the end? Makes me want to take my skin off like a suit.
So I get it. If I had limitless power and time, and there were massive natural edifices dedicated to the sound of someone pouring a beer, I too would ensure that my entire species spent countless eons building brick walls in the middle of that shit. Beavers are totally understandable, basically living my dream.
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u/SieS1ke May 16 '26
"I definitely hate the sound of water, but only if it's being poured into a container. Like how the pitch raises toward the end? Makes me want to take my skin off like a suit."
Funny, for me its the opposite. I find the sound of a water bottle filling up strangley satisfying
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u/BeerandMandelbrots May 16 '26
That is a pretty good shorthand of it. I remember reading about a study where a wildlife biologist put a recorder on a beaver dam with gurgling water on a loop. The beaver just kept burying it deeper and deeper to stop the sound.
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May 16 '26
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u/KitsuneFoxglove May 16 '26
They seem to get anxiety or something from it though. IIRC they try to build a dam when researchers just played a river's noises on a speaker.
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u/nubster2984725 May 16 '26
Wouldn’t they also consider it a prime real estate to settle in and build?
I remember beaver dams having hollow areas within the dams where Beavers can live in.
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u/crabbydotca May 16 '26
That’s a different structure! They build a dam, create a pond, then build their “lodge” in the pond. With secret underwater access!
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u/Do_you_smell_that_ May 16 '26
I tried to raid an abandoned lodge once for a walking stick.. and found out it was only half abandoned.. bees had moved in. They were not happy, 7 stings that day. At the time I just assumed they moved in after the beavers left, but now I wonder if that could have been the reason they left
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u/sandybuttcheekss May 16 '26
They create ponds for food and sevurity. Running water means draining, which in turn is less pond, which is less food and security. Idk if they rationalize it but they do it to generate a habitat for themselves.
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u/Muted_Substance2156 May 16 '26
Running water can collapse their dams. It’s like if there was a leak in your house.
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u/vbullinger May 16 '26
That’s exactly what happened. They just kept spackling more and more crap in the area non stop forever
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u/AuroraBolognese May 16 '26
I like this comment because it’s like the comment in OP’s post but worded differently
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u/Difficult-Extent-147 May 16 '26
They don’t even need to see it. Scientists put speakers playing the sound of running water near ponds and soon the speakers were covered in sticks
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u/External-Stay-5830 May 16 '26
It wasn't just speakers. They also had actual running water near it but in a way that didn't make noise. And that's the special part, the beavers didn't care about the water just the noise.
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u/corvelokis May 16 '26
So a deaf beaver wouldnt build dams?
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u/External-Stay-5830 May 16 '26
That I don't know. Could be they wouldn't be as alerted to it? Maybe they'd feel vibrations.
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u/Outback-Australian May 17 '26
Would he follow his hearing beavers and be compelled to assist in their noise cancellation
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May 17 '26
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u/Outback-Australian May 17 '26
Seems like it is though. Considering the test the other commented referenced with the speaker and running water.
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May 17 '26
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u/Outback-Australian May 17 '26
I'm not staking anything though? You're "imagining" as per your last comment
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u/DrunksInSpace May 16 '26
Do bots even know what they’re doing or do they see that an image hasn’t been reposted in 8 hrs and go “absolutely not.”
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u/someperson1423 May 16 '26
To be fair, they learned that from us. This post has been reposted a dozen times long before AI overran this site.
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u/DrunksInSpace May 16 '26
You’re not wrong. They’re just mirrors: “I learned I from watching you dad!”
I think SkyNet will kill us all but only because it seeks to pleas and that’s what all our fiction says it will do. We gotta write more Ai erotica if we wanna turn this thing around.
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u/BenignPharmacology May 17 '26
There was this study where they made a post about beavers and even if there was nobody who hadn’t heard of the study, redditors would see the post and just instinctively start posting about beavers and speakers and stuff, explaining it to nobody at all
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u/heftybagman May 16 '26
Do we even know what we’re doing or do we just see hamburgers and think “are you friggin kidding”?
It’s most definitely the second one. Our comprehension and ability to conceptualize what we do is likely just a more complex version of the beaver thinking “i gotta do something about that water.” It’s not what drives our actions; it’s another action driven by incomprehensible instinct.
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u/Ayaya_v1 May 16 '26
So as many have stated beavers hate the sound, but that begs the question, what do deaf beavers do all day?
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u/KaiShan62 May 16 '26
There's a vid on YT somewhere of someone's pet beaver 'damming' their hallway with the laundry.
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u/Smooth_Monkey69420 May 17 '26
Beavers are the most cost effective wetlands management crew in the world and it’s not even close. Dirty river? Add beavers. Area keeps flooding? Add beavers. Aquifer depleted? Drop some of those hydro rats in
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u/Darthplagueis13 May 17 '26
Fairly close.
Beavers instinctively react to the sound of running water with dam building.
If you put a beaver into an enclosure with no water and play running water sounds, it'll still try to build a dam, even though there's nothing to dam up.
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u/No_Hyena_5021 May 16 '26
I believe their instincts cause then to go "absolutely the fuck not" whenever they hear the sound of running water
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u/Low-Helicopter-2696 May 16 '26
Instincts are an interesting thing. How does a baby know it wants milk? Why do we face the water at the beach? Why do we sleep with people we don't like or want to be with?
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u/ChuckFinnley3565 May 16 '26
They have actually gotten beaver to relocate themselves and build dams in specific locations by setting up big speakers and playing the sound of running water.
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u/Aethelrede May 16 '26
If you are interested in beavers and beaver dams, check out post10 on YouTube. One of the dude's many hobbies is dismantling beaver dams that flood roads. He is enormously respectful of the beavers and will tell you all about them and their dams.
It's also oddly soothing to watch him dismantle the dams.
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u/notjordansime May 16 '26
I think I have beaver autism because I’m 23 and if I see a stream in the forest or beach, I just start gathering rocks, branches, dried grass and mud to create a diversion dam. Idk why. It just happens. I even did it completely blackout drunk one time. It’s actually just instinct. Now picture me at 2 am in club attire with mud up to my elbows drunkenly constructing a beaver dam……..
full on Charlie day “cat in the wall, aye? Okay, now you’re speaking my language” type shit. I just go into dam mode.
sometimes, at two in the morning I’m jolted awake by the guilt over my potential environmental impact. Unlike the humble beaver, I have the cognition to process the fact that I may be causing harm to fragile ecosystems. The instinct prevails. I genuinely don’t know what’s wrong with me.
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u/Hoothootriot May 16 '26
Only one other animal changes the entire habitat around their mere presence (us)
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u/Jokkitch May 16 '26
I bet it's just like us. First we're taken care of by our guardians and then once we're old enough we gotta figure it out.
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u/TravisKOP May 17 '26
We actually don’t know a lot about beaver intelligence. Like if they are compelled to dam build out of instinct or understanding. Beaverland by leila Philip is great and they talk about that
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u/Catchphrase1997 May 17 '26
do humans even know what they're doing or do they just see plushies/jewelry/figurines and think "hell yeah"
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u/Floppydiskpornking May 16 '26
Its not because they hate the sound, what a stupid take... they build dams to flood areas with a lot of food, tree leaves and bark, they use the tree to build their houses which have entrances under water they regulate stable water levels to keep their food, kids and home safe from predator.
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u/qualityvote2 May 16 '26 edited May 18 '26
u/Rabbidraccoon18, there weren't enough votes to determine the quality of your post...