Bob CollinsThere’s big news on the history-of-beavers beat today.
For years, tales of parachuting beavers have been told in Idaho, where the fish and game department reportedly trapped beavers, then put them in small boxes and parachuted them to remote locations where they wouldn’t bother anyone.
Boise State Public Radio reports that a long search for video evidence of this practice has finally ended. The video was found and digitized.
Parachuting beavers, people!
Beavers are still regularly trapped in Idaho, but they haven’t been air-dropped for more than 50 years.
The process, by the way, took a little more research to pull off that one might think. The first “drop boxes” were made of woven willow. But then the agency officials realized that beavers particularly like chewing willow and they were worried that while having a light snack on the way down from the plane, the beavers would end up falling out of the boxes. The idea was scrapped, presumably, without loss of beaver life.
(h/t: Mike Olson)
