Sunday, July 25, 2010

Beaver, Pen and Ink Sketch - Linda C. Miller


Pen and Ink Sketch
Linda C. Miller, July 2010

While walking on the trail very early in the morning, my husband and I noticed bubbles in the little creek.  The bubbles kept "popping" up!  As we watched for a few minutes, the mystery was solved.  Up popped the beaver's head.

Beavers are vegetarians and this beaver was eating the aquatic plants in the creek, creating quite a scare for the invertebrates! 

Fun fact about beavers......... Beavers can stay underwater for an extraordinarily long time.  At least 15 minutes at a time! 

How do they do it----their heart rate drops to half its usual rate, a third eyelid call a nictitating membrane covers the eyes; similar membranes close off the ears, nostrils and throat automatically; and ..... they are able to use 75 percent of the oxygen in their lungs whereas human lungs process only 15 percent.

To learn more, I highly recommend Warner Shedd's "Owls Aren't Wise and Bats Aren't Blind", a wonderful book that debunks many common myths about our native wildlife.  Also the wildlife illustrations by Trudy Nicholson are outstanding.  I found this wonderful book at the Williamsburg Library!

Linda C. Miller
Williamsburg, Virginia
Artist, Naturalist and Instructor

1 comment:

  1. Wonderful, Linda! Love the info and I agree with your recommendation of Warner Shedd's book! I love that you don't have to read the chapters in order, too!

    ReplyDelete

We'd love to hear from you, your questions, comments, observations! Please feel free to comment, feedback is important to us.