A rarely-spotted semi-aquatic rodent continues to appear on social media on the heels of its international day of recognition.
On Wednesday (April 7), people around the world celebrated International Beaver Day. In Vancouver, a curious brown beaver made its way up to the Legends of the Moon Gift Shop for a little window-shopping rendezvous.
Now, Vancouver local Kerry Ward is sharing a couple of videos he captured of a beaver in Stanley Park that appears to be struggling on its journey. In the first video, the flat-tailed mammal attempts to squeeze under a chain-link fence. "It fences off the causeway to Deadman's Island," he explains. As it tries to dig a path beneath the barrier, people in the video comment that it looks like it needs help.
In the second video, the resident rodent makes its way around a steep incline, but it isn't the most graceful manoeuvring.
Have a look at the struggling critter.
Here's another recent snap of a resident Stanley Park beaver.
These beavers came to a Stanley Park lake after a 60-year hiatus
Known for building large dams, lodges, and canals, you're more likely to see evidence of beavers than you are to spot one of the large rodents. So, when the first beaver was spotted in Stanley Park's Beaver Lake in over 60 years, it made a considerable splash.
In 2008, the first semi-aquatic herbivore mysteriously appeared in Beaver Lake after an extraordinary hiatus. No one knows how it got there, but a second one joined it in 2011. Afterward, the pair had kits.
Vancouver Is Awesome spoke to Ariane Comeau, Conservation Projects Manager at the Stanley Park Ecology Society, about the park's semi-nocturnal rodents, as well as what role they play in the park's ecosystem. She notes the creatures are a keystone species, which means they play a vital role in sustaining other species in an ecosystem.
"The beavers eat the water lilies, which are an invasive species in the park," remarks Comeau. "The lilies cover so much of the water, and the beavers also pool water and make it deeper."
By eating the lilies, Beavers allow more space for fish, invertebrates, and birds. More comfortable in the water, Comeau adds that they create channels while they swim. She notes that they are able to move more quickly in the water, which keeps them safe from natural predators such as coyotes and river otters. In front of the lodge in Beaver Lake, she notes that they have cleared a significant amount of lilies from the water.
