VIDEO: Young beaver living with humans

Submitted by Looduskalender EN on Wed, 18.12.2019 - 09:47
Sisu

 

In the video from Russia we see a young beavert, few months old, that people rescued from death and that now lives in the care of a woman. It is interesting to listen to the sound of the young beaver – very similar to a human baby. And it is interesting to note how similar the movements of the beaver are to those of human babies .

Posted by the Animal of the Year Team.
Estonian text 14.12.2019

 

 

Keeping a beaver at home is not surprising in Russia because people there  more easily accept having wild animals at home. Stories of large predators kept as domestic pets even in apartment houses are known. Keeping a beaver at  home is however more complicated than other animals since the teeth of a beaver grow continuously and to keep them suitably worn down the beaver must chew a great deal. Satisfying a beaver’s daily chewing need can in the long run become unmanageable for a person.

The question whether it is right to keep a wild animal at home is another matter. In this case nothing else was left for the humans because the young beaver was dying and the kind heart of the humans did not allow the little creature to be abandoned.

Would this animal survive in free nature later? From the video we  learn that the recovered beaver goes swimming in the river and enjoying the water daily but in the evenings returns voluntarily back home to the humans. The gaol is however still to let it go back to nature. The current video clip was made already several years ago for the local TV channel ”Channel 4”, possible that the channel has investigated what happened to the young beaver later and a sequel has been made but we have not succeeded in finding it on the Internet. If any of our readers has happened to see what happened to the beaver later please let us know.

Taking home a young prey-hunting animal may also mean that it will not manage on its own when it is released out in nature later. Or the animal can be so used to humans that an unknowing hunter easily catches it – but the former keeper must then not grudge it!

Taking a wild animal home must remain a rare case – luckily it is usually so – so as not to  get animals used to people. Often it is better to give preference to the protection of species over the protection of an individual and this principle is also expressed in the law but also clearly all cases in life do not have standard solutions.

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