Friends of Little Rocky Run - Virtual Tour of Watershed, Page 28, The Falls to New Braddock Road, Cont.

The photography expedition had a very strange experience shooting the photos on this page and in the rest of this section. About the time the photo to the left was taken, a beaver slapped its tail on the water, dived, and started heading upstream.  This was nothing unusual.  Immediately afterwards we walked along the asphalt trail and crossed the feeder rivulet you can see in the upper part of the middle photo. We were gone about 30 minutes taking photos upstream and were not far from the rivulet. When we came back to the rivulet we were amazed to see the beaver photographed below.  Unfortunately he was dead, his throat ripped out by some unknown predator.  His body was still limber and warm and there is little doubt that he was killed while we were nearby..

We were amazed that a predator could kill an animal this large (and with a dangerous bite!) with absolutely no noise or fuss that alerted us in any way.  We concluded that whatever killed it was almost certainly a wild animal and not a domestic dog which would have barked and made its presence known.  We also concluded that the predator hid when we came back by and then had his meal once we were gone.  (Note: we decided not to photograph the throat injury.  It seemed unnecessary.)

Photos on this page shot on 12/27/02 by Will Foster.

Take me to Page 29 of the Virtual Tour Section!

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