(lighthearted music)
- Beavers are what I like to call environmental engineers.
They are amazing at creating what they need for themselves,
and at the same time, creating brand new ponds, wetlands,
and all kinds of different environments
that other animals thrive in.
We have two beavers here at Oregon Zoo.
Filbert is the more friendly, relaxed, fun-loving beaver.
Maple is a little bit more mischievous.
But if you put them together,
they're the perfect little pair.
Beavers do so much for the ecosystem,
but living with them isn't always easy.
- With the prevention and planning,
we can almost always find a way
for beavers and people to coexist.
First and foremost,
I recommend that people take the steps that they can
to be able to keep beavers on the landscape.
With chewing down trees, you can cage trees.
A beaver deceiver keeps the beavers
from plugging up culverts,
so you still have water flowing through.
Beavers are very smart,
so (laughs) not very easy to deceive.
We like to be able to keep beavers where they're at,
but sometimes mitigation efforts aren't gonna be successful.
So last resort,
we end up being able to relocate them.
These beavers were in a drainage ditch right next to I-84,
and they were causing issues,
and so we could take these beavers
and put them into a better situation for long-term survival.
We have a wet meadow that we lost
the family of beavers at a while back.
That causes that wet meadow to disappear over time,
and that's something that we don't want,
because that is a very special habitat.
So we need to get a family of beavers to put in there.
We needed a place that would hold the beavers,
and I was like,
"Well, what's a better place than the Oregon Zoo?"
- We received four wild beavers altogether
that arrived here at the Veterinary Medical Center.
We made sure that they had good food to eat,
clean water, fresh bedding.
But for the most part,
we just let them be together
and tried to be as hands off as possible.
Beavers are very family oriented,
so it was important that this group of beavers
was already a family group.
And you could see that while they were here.
They all got full veterinary examinations,
so that when they were put back into the wild,
we had a healthy group of beavers.
The beavers were here for only about three weeks,
as little time as possible
to get them back out into the wild
and starting their new life.
- The beaver release day is always exciting.
The area that we released the beavers
is one of my favorite areas.
You've got old growth,
you've got a wet meadow that we're trying to restore there.
It's amazingly beautiful.
- The entire time that we were walking along the trail
getting ready to release the beavers,
we were just talking about how excited we were.
And then we came out into the clearing where the lake was,
and we were blown away
and couldn't wait to let those beavers go.
- The kennels were opened up,
and sometimes they'd be a little hesitant,
and then other times they would come out pretty quickly.
(upbeat music)
So far, things are going extremely well.
We have four beavers that are on camera,
not at the same time, but we have two at a time.
So I think that they've paired up two and two.
My hope for them now would be that they stay in that area
and we have them there for years and years to come.
- I'm hoping that those beavers
have made their way into their new pond,
and they've built themselves a lodge,
and that they stay in that area
and create a better ecosystem where they are.
(gentle music)