The Beaver Den – scientific literacy book club

Each month we select a published research paper relating to beavers to read, critically evaluate, and discuss.

Beavers are fascinating animals with so many mechanisms of influencing the world. Closely examining primary literature will give us a deeper understanding of how their influences on other species and environmental processes are studied and established. Scientific writing can be impenetrable, but discussing a text together is a great way to enhance understanding and grow curiosity for the details that others notice.

November’s full moon is known as the Beaver Moon – because beavers have a final burst of energy to bolster their dams and food supplies before slowing down for the winter…. when wolves become more active! Let’s read about the outsized effect wolves have on lands they share with beaver via predation and the ensuing trophic cascades:

Gable, T. D., Johnson-Bice, S. M., Homkes, A. T., Windels, S. K., & Bump, J. K. (2020). Outsized effect of predation: Wolves alter wetland creation and recolonization by killing ecosystem engineers. Science Advances, 6(46), eabc5439.

Contact Maureen (Maureen@thinkwildco.org) with questions on this or future meetings