Rescued Baby Beaver Builds "Dams" In Rescuer’s House Using Whatever It Can Find

Beave has his own TikTok channel with more than 370,000 followers.

Damjan

• Published in Animal Stories
• November 16, 2020

Beavers can be pets, right? If we can keep donkeys, squirrels, pigs, and raccoons in our homes, why not a raccoon? They are so cute and adorable. Everyone loves beavers, right?

Keeping a beaver in your house might seem like a great idea until it starts acting on its instincts. And their primary instinct is to build dams, everywhere they can, and with any material they can get their paws on.

Tissue boxes, pillows, buckets, plungers – they all make excellent building materials in the claws of a skillful worker. Beave is a rescue beaver who’s been living with Nancy, a certified wildlife rehabilitation specialist.

She took him in May of 2020 when he was just 3 weeks old baby. Kind people found him by the side of the road and brought him to the shelter.

Nancy believes Beave’s parents were killed because they couldn’t have left him at that spot in the first place. It’s possible, but not for certain, that poachers might have left him by the side of the road.

Beave is a rescue beaver who has fostered by a wildlife rehabber until he’s ready to go back to the natural habitat

And he loves to build dams

Many species passed through rehab here, and that includes housing, food, medical care, and most important – preparing them for their return to the wild. Beavers, though, are specific.

They stay with their parents for around two years. And during that period they learn everything from them. Absolutely everything.

Beave was found by the side of the road when he was only three weeks old

It is believed that poachers killed Beave’s parents and abandoned by the side of the road

According to the rehabilitation plan, he’ll stay with Nancy for about 2 years

In a video, Nancy shared how she needed to teach him to eat solid food after he outgrew special formula beaver milk. At first, he wouldn’t eat vegetation, so she started pretending she was eating it herself. Only then did Beave understand what he was supposed to do. But he still needs to be hand-fed.

Beave will stay in rehab for the next two years. Besides swimming and wandering around, he also practices the most essential skill, building dams.

“Beave is just starting to dam with household objects but has not yet started outside or in water,” said Nancy. “He dams pretty much every evening. When I clean it up, he just rebuilds!

Nancy shared videos of Beave building “dams” at home

But since he can’t find branches and twigs in the house, he uses everything he can find around the house. Pillows, metal racks, buckets, figurines, shoes, blocks, buckets, cloth, toilet mats, brushes, boxes, toys… the list is long.

When asked about the challenges of a beaver rehabilitation, Nancy replied: “The most challenging part about rehabbing a beaver is trying to teach him to learn all the things his parents would teach him. He does chew everything in the house, but with each rehab, there are unique challenges.”

Beave’s TikTok channel has more than 370,000 followers

Dam building is not his only activity. He goes outside for his regular baths and exercise, and he also explores the sanctuary. He will be released into the wild once he learns everything he needs to survive alone in the wild.

Beave has his very own TikTok channel where visitors can see videos of him swimming, sniffing around, eating, and doing the usual beaver stuff.

His dam-building videos regularly get tens of thousands of likes and hundreds of thousands of views. One of his videos amassed more than 700,000 views with nearly 100,000 likes, so it's safe to say he is a true Internet celebrity.

Damjan