Massachusetts in Uproar Over Fate of 2-Year-Old Beaver

Whether a 2-year-old beaver named Nibi gets to stay with the rescuers she has known since she was a baby or must be released into the wild as winter approaches in Massachusetts has ended up in court—and caused such an uproar that even the governor has weighed in. A judge on Tuesday said that for now, Nibi will allowed to stay in her home at Newhouse Wildlife Rescue in Chelmsford, northwest of Boston. The AP reports a hearing has been set for Friday in the case the rescuers filed against MassWildlife, the state's division of fisheries and wildlife, to stop the release.

Jane Newhouse, the rescue group's founder and president, said that after Nibi was found on the side of the road, they tried to reunite her with nearby beavers who could have been her parents but were unsuccessful. After that, attempts to get her to bond with other beavers also didn't work. "It's very difficult to consider releasing her when she only seems to like people and seems to have no interest in being wild or bonding with any of her own species," Newhouse said.

Newhouse said she had asked MassWildlife if she could get a permit for Nibi to become an educational beaver, allowing her to take the beaver to schools, libraries, and town halls. But, she said, with the recent denial of that came the order to release Nibi. Nibi has been a hit on the rescue group's social media since she was a baby, and posts about her impending release garnered thousands of comments. An online petition to keep Nibi where she is has received over 25,000 signatures, lawmakers have weighed in as well, and this week Gov. Maura Healey pledged to make sure Nibi is protected.

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Newhouse said that her fear is that a release would mean certain death for her beloved "diva" beaver, who doesn't know how to live in the wild right now. "It doesn't give her much time how to figure out how to build a lodge for the first time, how to build dams for the first time, how to store all of her food before winter sets in," she said. Newhouse said that beavers usually leave their parents between the ages of 2 and 3, so it's possible that over the next year Nibi will show more interested in wanting to be in the wild. But unless that happens, she wants to keep her safe.

(More beavers stories.)