- Animals
- News
Why beavers were parachuted into the Idaho wilderness 73 years ago
The traditional way of relocating “nuisance” beavers in the 1940s wasn’t working. To increase the survival rate, one conservation officer turned to—yes—parachutes.
Sharon Clark was going about her daily business as a historian in Idaho’s Fish and Game Department, in 2014, when the telephone rang.
“I’ve found it,” the voice on the other end said conspiratorially.
“You found what?” Clark asked, recognizing the voice of Michal Davidson, a collections archivist who worked in the Idaho State Archives.
“The beaver film,” she responded.
It had been six years since Clark first learned about this now-infamous film, which shows beavers parachuting from the sky in 1948 as part of a Fish and Game experiment to relocate them into remote wilderness. She couldn’t wait to screen it.
Today, black rhinos are anesthetized and hung from helicopters by their feet, skimming the savanna as they’re flown to new locations
