Beaver Update

You may have already read about it in various newspapers this week but in case you missed it, the baby Beaver that was bought into us in July was release last Saturday and now has a new home! We have several photos and videos to share with you but until we do, we thought you would enjoy reading the article that seems to have made it’s rounds this week (including the Akron Beacon Journal on Tuesday). Enjoy! – Fran Kitchen

Rehabbed beaver now at home at Killbuck Marsh
By Art Holden

Believing they were doing the right thing, they stopped their fishing, loaded up the beaver and their gear, and took the animal home, thinking it was orphaned.

‘They grabbed him thinking they were saving his life,’ said wildlife rehabilitator Fran Kitchen. ‘They should have left him alone. His momma was nearby.’

By the time Kitchen, who runs Operation Orphan Wildlife Rehabilitation in Akron, got involved, it was too late to try and reunite the baby beaver with its mother. Kitchen then decided to take the beaver and get it ready to return to the wild. It was a long process, culminating in its release in the Killbuck Marsh Wildlife Area the third week of May.

‘The highest high in the world is when I release an animal, any animal,’ said Kitchen.

The 76-year-old, who has been a wildlife rehabilitator for 58 years, was overcome with emotion as she watched the beaver slowly walk from its cage to the water, then head out through a vast sea of lily pads to its new home.

‘He is where he needs to be,’ said Kitchen. ‘And diet-wise, he’s going to be fine. I just hope he doesn’t run into another male (beaver) before he acclimates himself to the area. Another male will run him off, but I think he’s big enough and tough enough to hold his own.’

When Kitchen first got the beaver, she could hold it in the palm of her hand, but now some 11 month later, it’s nearly fully grown. It will continue to grow until it’s 2 years old.

At Kitchen’s rehab facility, the beaver showed it knew what to do instinctively, and didn’t need to taught by its mother to to build a lodge or a dam. Give the beaver a stick and the next thing you know, it’s got a home and a dam. Kitchen would toss sticks in the beaver’s cage, which it peeled the bark off of for food, and then would stuff the sticks down into the straw that was in the cage for bedding. And since last fall, the beaver had managed to build a lodge over 2 feet high. Then one morning when Kitchen went out to check on the beaver, it had lined up sticks over night across the cage as to be building a dam.

As for the release site, Kitchen said she called her old friend Aaron Brown, the Wayne County Wildlife officer, and asked him if he knew of a good place to release the beaver back into the wild.

‘He said ‘I absolutely do,’’ said Kitchen, ‘and he got me in contact with (Killbuck Marsh Wildlife Area manager) Dennis Solon.’

The release originally was scheduled for April, when the weather would have been a little cooler, but Kitchen was in a car accident when a person ran a red light, and she figured the insurance company didn’t want her transporting a beaver in a rental van.

She said the recent hot weather would not affect the beaver, as its coat not only protects it from the cold of winter, but insulates it from the heat of summer as well.

A chance to survive the wild is the course of nature And while Kitchen knows the beaver’s future, or that of any bird or mammal she rehabs and releases, is not certain, she feels good in knowing she gives the animals a chance at a life in the wild.

‘There’s not one place on the face of this Earth that there’s not a predator,’ said Kitchen. ‘Some of the animals I release I’m sure have fallen prey to other animals, but at least they had a chance. … Nature takes its course.’

She is adamant the public sees it that way. Each spring she gets hundreds of calls from folks saying they found an orphaned animal.

‘Eighty-five percent of the babies people pick up are not orphaned,’ Kitchen said. ‘My advice to people is to put them back and get them reunited with their mommas. … And if you see a baby animal, make a phone call before picking it up. Most of the time they don’t need your assistance.’

Just then, the beaver hit an open area of water in the swamp, and smacked its tail as if to wave goodbye to Kitchen.

‘He’s going to be very nervous today and afraid tonight, and he’s going to miss his evening snack,’ said Kitchen. ‘He’s had an easy life so far, but now he’s home.’

To learn more about Operation Orphan Wildlife Rehabilitation Inc., or to make a donation to Kitchen’s lifelong work, go to operationorphanwildlife.com. Outdoor correspondent Art Holden can be reached at letsplabal@yahoo.com.

When Fran Kitchen received the 4-week-old beaver to rehab in June 2020, it was a cute puffball that could fit in the palm of her hand. Photos courtesy of Dana Giron.