The beaver appeared at dawn on the banks of the old river channel at Rio Bosque Wetlands Park.
A trail camera first captured the beaver on Jan. 22, 2019, just before sunrise as it sat upright at the base of a Goodding’s willow tree. It was not the first indication of the beaver’s presence. A couple of weeks prior, the park manager at the time, John Sproul, photographed the shaved and gnawed-off limbs of another young willow. The protective mesh wiring that caged the tree did not seem to deter the animal.
The Rio Grande beaver or Mexican beaver, Castor canadensis mexicanus, is one of several subspecies of North American beaver adapted to desert riparian areas. Smaller and lighter in color than their northern counterparts, their range stretches along the river, with 98 active colonies documented at Big Bend National Park in 2015.
Beavers have come and gone through the Rio Bosque, making a handful of irregular appearances since park restoration began in the 1990s. Before the 2019 beaver, the last sighting at Rio Bosque was in winter of 2010…