Today I'm in Nibley, Utah, to help a guy named
Nate relocate some beavers.
That's right, Nibley.
So we must be Nate.
Hey, Mike. How are you going? Nibley.
Yeah, it's interesting.
Name for a town. Yeah, I live there.
I like it. I'm just thinking about what the
beavers do to the trees.
There's a certain symmetry to that.
There is. What is the organization with which
you're affiliated?
I work for Utah State University and we have
the Beaver Ecology and Relocation Center.
Burke Beaver Ecology and Relocation Center.
Yeah, but that.
Name is Long, so we call it the Beaver bunkhouse.
I wish I'd have known that five minutes ago.
We're in a beaver bunkhouse. Why are you
relocating them?
We've got some nuisance beavers that are causing
trouble, taking down trees, blocking culverts,
you know?
All right, well, let me assist in whatever way I
can. Boss me around and let's.
Let's do it. All right.
First thing we need to do is figure out what kind
of traps we're going to set. We got a Hancock
trap. We got a box trap, and we got snares.
The purpose of Nate's operation is to relocate
beavers from areas where their damming up and
flooding municipalities and move them into the
forest where they can help prevent erosion and
contribute to the local ecosystem.
So here's some, you know, pretty obvious signs of
beaver activity.
Even as a rank amateur, I bet you I could have
concluded that.
Cottonwood trees like this are a favorite of
beavers due to their high sugar content.
Yeah, beavers have a sweet tooth.
Two big ones, actually.
They make a meal of the bark and then use the
leftover sticks for dam construction.
All right, so just go down and pull this stuff
up. Yeah. So just keep coming back to the same
place. They keep building.
It's the easiest spot, right?
Yeah. They work from the bottom.
Build a nice foundation, right.
And then work their way up from there.
There you go.
It's looking pretty good.
The first step in relocating beavers is to
catch them. So we set some dam traps where
they're dam dams are causing lots of dam
flooding.
Okay.
This is the trigger.
So now you just need to push in.
Sorry if I'm jumping in there.
No, it's okay. It's very hard to watch an idiot
learn. Were they using these back in the day?
No.
I mean, they were turning them into hats.
What do they care about catching alive?
Right. Yeah.
Matter of fact, they didn't want to because
they didn't want the angry beaver to deal
with.
Nobody wants an angry beaver, Nate.
All right, so if Nick were to suddenly become
the beaver Cam, the perspective of the
beaver. Yeah, he would be coming out of the
water. He's curious.
You know, it's the middle of the night.
You expect anything, and boom, there he goes into
the cage. Then he hits one of those wires and
snap. Nice work, Nick.
See you at the Emmys.
The next day, we head to the beaver bunkhouse,
where our adventure officially begins.
Somewhere up in those mountains, beavers are
doing what beavers do.
There they're chewing trees and they're making
dams. And as a result of those dams, the water is
being diverted. And it's flooding meadows like
these where the sheep live.
And then the sheep, they get stuck in the mud and
they die. This is just one of many problems
being caused by the beavers here in Utah.
In the midst of.
My standup, however, I can't help but notice
some trauma in the distance.
Oh, well, good work.
We got sheep all over me.
Well, that'll.
Happen. We were trying to shoot an open for our
little segment here.
Thought it'd be good to walk among the sheep, and
one of the sheep walked among the fences and got
himself all tangled up.
You're going to be fine.
You're going to be all right, buddy.
You're going to be fine.
Congratulations, Zach.
You're famous. You're covered with sheep, but
you're famous. Off you go.
Morning. Morning, Mike.
Sounds like it's already an adventure.
Never a dull moment.
Exactly. How are you, buddy?
I'm great, thanks. Good.
Hey, guys.
I'm Jessica. Nice to meet you, Mike.
I'm doing great.
Vonda? Vonda with a V?
Yep. I'm Becky.
Becky With a B? Yes.
So this is the beaver bunkhouse.
World famous glorious bunkhouse.
Good news. One of our traps caught a beaver
last night. So, Alex and Amber.
That's a beaver.
Two of Nate's trappers have brought the little
rascal here.
Can I assist? You betcha.
Keep your fingers out of there and you'll be okay.
This new resident of the Beaver bunkhouse will be
quarantined for three days to clear it of any
parasites and disease.
All right, buddy, you're in.
Meanwhile, we've got two beavers who have just
finished their quarantine and are ready
to be released.
Mike, get in there and clean those sticks with
Becky. I'd be.
Happy to. Sure thing.
Piper is called Piper because they found him
blocking a pipe.
Piper is called Pooper because.
Well, do I have to spell it out for you?
You just turned it into a carnival ride.
I know, right?
Step one, fire up the motor on the portable
water tank.
Why don't we get Mike?
Oh, yeah. There you go.
Yeah.
There you go. I was waiting.
Mike, we need someone to pull something.
I'd be happy to do that.
This is why you don't get Mike.
Oh.
Whoops. My bad.
We'll use the shovel.
We'll need to fill the buckets the old fashioned
way. Beavers have thick fur to keep them warm.
But since our beavers don't have access to a
pond, we'll need to keep them cool.
There's a lot of poop in there. Yeah.
Yeah.
Beaver poop. It's a new one.
How do you get the poop out?
We'll wash it down the drain. All right.
And the water that we rinse out of here is
watering the trees.
So the wastewater from the beavers are actually
growing their own food.
Their own fertilizer is providing the basis to
create their next meal.
Exactly.
All right, Mike, we're going to take this and
we're going to set it up against that back wall in
there. All right. And we're going to try to
direct Piper into that cage.
Easy, easy.
You know where you want to go.
There you go. Good man.
All right. All right.
And then you just take this, give it a twist and
a pull and it goes down.
Is going to get released today.
So he's going to get his new home, huh?
He's a growler.
It's a big day for him.
Aggressive. He's aggressive.
You hear that hissing sound he's making?
You hear the kind of sounds. Beaver.
Make that right there. That's a kind of
aggressive. He has.
Visible biceps and quads.
And he's drooling.
Yeah, he's a little distressed as a rule.
When a creature looks at me, hisses and drools, I
back off. You want to leave him alone?
All right, pooper, chill out. Now I pick him up.
Yep.
Grab him by the handle.
They're solid animals.
Steady as she goes. Pooper.
Do you want me to hold one into that?
Yeah. Yeah. You take the backside.
I'll take. Watch your fingers, though, huh?
Oh. It's a heavy beaver.
I'm surprised that the density of these things.
Could Piper whirl around and bite my fingers off.
Yeah. Oh, sorry.
You know, I think he could.
He spun around, He hissed at me.
You got it?
Yeah. Oh, my goodness.
He bit right at me.
Okay. Right here on the floor.
He's not happy with me.
Let's put that over him.
Let him calm down a bit.
Yeah, let's let him. Let's put it.
And then you drop your end.
Well, I did put it down briefly.
No, you dropped it.
It's hard to watch an idiot fumble around.
I know.
It's the beaver bag.
Now we get the drooling beaver into a beaver bag.
Go ahead and get the beaver out.
Push this in.
Piper, The beaver.
Bag is ingeniously named.
It's a cloth sack that swaddles the beaver and
covers its eyes for easier handling.
Oh, the other way, buddy.
Come on. If they're in their whole, they're
being attacked. They can hunch their body and lock
themselves into that hole. Really?
Yeah.
He's a strong one.
I think he likes being on camera.
He's probably like, you know, this is probably
never going to happen again, so I'm going to
get as much screen time as possible.
Yep. There he goes.
Got him. Him.
Dude. Hey. Hey.
Fever is on the move.