Nature (1982–…): Season 32, Episode 17 - Leave It to Beavers - full transcript

NARRATOR: Who can turn a desert
into a garden?

WOMAN: Oh, my God.
Habitat that looks like this!

It's gorgeous!

NARRATOR: When you need to save
crops and cattle

from the deepest drought,
who you going to call?

Call a beaver.

Controlling water is what
beavers have been doing

for thousands of years.

No one does it better.

Every beaver family is dedicated
to the job --

excavating...



logging...

building channels and dams.

They build whole landscapes
for hundreds of other creatures.

WOMAN: In 2002, we had the worst
drought on record.

The only places where we had
water was where we had beaver.

NARRATOR: So after we nearly
eliminated them,

some very interesting people
are working to bring them back.

I am a hairdresser, honey.

I like HBO,
I want a toilet that flushes.

But for some season,
when there's wildlife involved,

especially beaver,
I'm kind of fearless.

Now I'm a hairdresser
and a live beaver trapper.

Hi, who's this?

Come here and see.



With the other animals
that I've rehabbed,

you want to limit
your contact.

But for the beaver, because
they're so family oriented,

they need to feel nurtured.

We've brought you
some new family members.

I'm delighted!

I'm not sure how many there are.

Hopefully there'll be babies.

MAN: Yeah, yeah,
this is good.

WOMAN: [Laughs]
It's wonderful!

NARRATOR: North America's
fertile landscape

is the work of one animal,
more than any other.

But building a Garden of Eden
isn't easy.

You must fell hundreds of trees
to dam a river...

then build a castle,
with a moat,

filled by a flood that spreads
over several acres.

Yet beavers don't look
like the kind of animal

that can change the world.

Somewhat blind and slow,

they seem like simple folk.

But this overgrown rodent
is an extraordinary engineer.

The landscapes of Europe, Asia,
and North America

were once dominated by millions
of these hardworking builders.

Beavers are vegetarians.

They gnaw through bark to eat
the sugary layer underneath.

They've been gnawing through
forests for 20 million years.

Felling trees with your teeth

takes great strength, skill,
and patience.

One technique is to slice
halfway through

and let the wind do the rest.

The beaver's incisors
are strengthened with iron,

which makes them orange.

They grow continuously
and even self-sharpen.

The pond makes it easier

to move around the heavy logs
they need to build their dams.

Out of the water,
it's a struggle.

Stones help weigh down the base.

The whole family works together,

carefully interlocking
the timber.

They dredge mud from the pond
bottom to seal the dam.

Each pond traps several inches
of sediment every year,

so there's plenty of it.

The young act as
apprentice builders,

learning the tricks
of the trade.

The final results are
impressive.

In the Rocky Mountains,
beaver dams

slowly filter
billions of tons of water.

The ponds build up soil
and nutrients

and help prevent floods
and droughts.

But hundreds of years ago,

beavers were most valued
for something else.

When Europeans arrived
in North America,

they found beavers dominating
the landscape

from Mexico to the Arctic.

They were said to be industrious
enough

to halt the Niagara Falls.

Huzzah!

Huzzah!

NARRATOR: But their fur made

fantastic felt hats.

For two hundred years they were
trapped to near extinction.

Then, fashions changed,
and we lost interest.

Only a few beavers survived.

Now they are recovering,

but they're finding
a changed world,

full of houses and farms.

As beavers reclaim
their ancestral ponds,

they flood hundreds
of human homes.

Anywhere with a rich soil was
probably once a beaver pond.

Now housing developments,
golf courses, and farms

find that beavers are
just a problem.

Though half the soil may be
thanks to beavers,

farmers prefer the land
under their control.

But beavers don't give up.

In Canada, clearing dams
from culverts under roads

is the job
of Highway Maintenance.

MAN: That's thousands
of cubic meters of water

that we have to get rid of.

If we can't get rid of it here,

where it is supposed to go,

it's going to end up

on the infrastructure.

It's going to end up
in the ditches,

it's going to end up
backing up into basements,

it's going to end up everywhere.

They are excellent
hydro-engineers,

and they will figure out ways
around just about everything.

We all know the water doesn't
always go where we want it to.

The beaver has
a very amazing way

of getting it to work for 'em.

We don't always know that.

If we could learn more
about their practices

and how they get that to work,
it would be great.

If you could train them
to put it where you need it,

that would be ideal.

If you could simply put up

a little arrow sign
or a "water this way,"

that would,
yeah, you'd be smiling.

But unfortunately
they don't read very well,

and they just kind of do
what they want to do.

NARRATOR: There is one place
where the beavers

do seem to be reading the signs

and doing more or less
as instructed.

In Gatineau Park, near Ottawa,

the local beavers follow
the directions

of self-styled beaver whisperer
Michel Leclair.

LECLAIR: Look how deep it is.

[Chuckles]

But you still have beaver
all around, so...

NARRATOR: 30 years ago,
Leclair was hired

to stop beavers
from flooding roads

across the 140 square miles
of Gatineau Park.

The only solution then was

to kill the animals
and destroy their dams.

Some people call them eco hero,

some people call them pest.

It's all depend on how much
problems you have with them.

And when you have problems
with them

and you don't know
how to resolve them,

they're not beaver hero,
that's for sure,

they're pest.

MAN: The major problem is
flooding roads.

The beaver dam
accumulates water,

and if the water pressure is too
big, the beaver dam just busts.

And then there's a big outflow
of water

that cuts roads in half.

What happens is that the road
just gets cut off completely.

NARRATOR: Gatineau Park has
hundreds of miles of roads,

threatened in many places
by beavers' damming up culverts.

LECLAIR: We were starting eight
hours a day and breaking dams.

The first year I came here
82 times.

NARRATOR: Well-equipped teams

dismantled dams by day.

But the beavers rebuilt them
every night.

What the hell
is the problem here?

What they do again,
what they did again?

And you're going to fight
against them.

It's going to be a war,

and I'm not sure
if you're going to win that.

Not sure.

NARRATOR: Leclair
and his colleagues

trapped 1,000 beavers a year
in the wildlife park.

And beavers weren't
the only ones caught.

Great blue herons, turtles,
otter,

you never know what you're
going to get in your trap.

So I didn't like it very much.

It was horrible.

NARRATOR: Leclair wanted to find
another way

and thought that beaver behavior
might offer a solution.

LECLAIR: First thing
is sound of water running.

NARRATOR: He places a recording
of a running stream

on top of the beaver dam.

LECLAIR: So now you're going to
see what the beaver reacts to.

And the beaver are going to
dance over it over the night.

NARRATOR: A small tree
takes a few minutes.

It's perhaps an hour
for bigger trees and branches,

and half the night
for a 12-inch-thick trunk.

Aspen, poplar, and willow
are usually the favorites.

Beavers have been crushed
by falling trees,

but that doesn't happen often.

Over the course of a year,

they may clear several acres
of trees.

Most rodents
have a high work rate,

but beavers are probably
the busiest.

They have a reputation
to keep up.

The dam's owners have buried
the stereo

with branches and mud.

That tells me that sound
is very exciting for them.

That's exactly the same.

We hear that, says,
"Oh, it's time to work."

NARRATOR: Running water is,
to a beaver,

like the sound of the plug being
pulled, draining their pond.

Leclair thought he could use
this knowledge

to stop beavers from damming
inside culverts

and flooding nearby roads.

He spoke to his supervisor,
Michel Viens.

The technique was a bit odd,
but it made sense to us.

So let's try it.

Go ahead and do it,

because we can't trap constantly
in the park.

We had to do something else.

So that's what we did.

NARRATOR: Leclair's idea
was to shift the sound

of the running water.

He puts in posts 15 feet away
from the culvert.

The beavers oblige by building
their dam in the new location,

not under the road.

He also lays down
sections of pipe,

and the beavers incorporate them
into the dam.

LECLAIR: I'm going to open
that pipe over there.

NARRATOR: When the water
gets a little high,

Michel simply pulls the plug
for a short time

and lowers the level
in the pond.

[Power tool whirring]

LECLAIR: You have to be
a plumber.

Yeah, I'm a plumber
of the beaver dam.

I put drain, like you do,
like in a house

to let the water running.

If it works here, it's going to
work all over the place.

So we are just
at the turning point

where we have to spread
that knowledge.

And the beavers,
they are happy,

cost less, less work,

and everybody's happy that way.

Eh?

NARRATOR:
In the Rocky Mountains,

the benefits
of a beaver's pond

are seen
most easily in spring.

Millions of acres of wetland

provide safety and food
for many birds and mammals.

A thousand years ago,
almost every creek

would have had chains of dams
down each valley.

For many animals,
they are still essential.

Moose make special trips
to beaver ponds

to eat the waterweed.

It's full of nutrients
like sodium and potassium

that are often scarce
in the surrounding forest.

For the beavers, the pond helps
to keep out bears and wolves.

[Splash]

One of the parents "tail-slaps"
to sound the alarm.

The beaver family
provides protection

for all the residents,
like a kindly landlord.

And the deeper the pond,
the safer they are.

Even good swimmers,
such as grizzlies,

are out of their depth.

Beavers excavate deep channels
as escape routes.

They can stay under, hidden,
for 15 minutes.

Secret entrances and exits
are the only way in and out

of their fortified lodge.

Inside, safe, are the young,
called kits.

It's May, and they are
a few weeks old

and supplementing the richest
milk of any land mammal

with fresh green leaves.

Unlike most rodents,
beavers take years to grow up.

There's a lot to learn to become
nature's greatest engineer.

They'll receive toilet training,
too,

using one of the underwater
doors.

The one-year-olds
help in the nursery

by washing the bedding.

Outside is a two-year-old.

He's like a teenage apprentice,

getting the final lessons
before leaving home.

His father is demonstrating
some basic repairs.

But even when the lodge and dam
are watertight,

there are major jobs
still to do.

As spring progresses, the nearby
trees are felled one by one.

It is the beginning of
the creation

of a broad meadow,
rich with silt.

New ponds are created
and canals dug

to reach the more distant trees.

Channels
wide enough for branches

may reach out hundreds of yards
from the original river.

Families may end up
with over a dozen dams

and an intricate maze
of waterways.

By the 1990s, scientists began
to investigate

the wider effects beavers
were having on the landscape.

Dr. Glynnis Hood has made them
her life's work.

She lives on the edge

of Elk Island National Park
in Alberta.

A hundred and fifty years ago,
the beavers here

were all trapped and killed
for the fur trade.

They were reintroduced in 1941.

Seven beavers were brought up
from Banff by train

and put into the park,

and the beaver population was
able to reestablish itself.

NARRATOR: The park kept
meticulous records.

HOOD: I had these great old maps

that the wardens
had done by hand

marking down the active and
inactive sites of beaver ponds.

NARRATOR: As she trawled through
54 years of data,

a pattern emerged.

It was assumed
beavers built their homes

where there was already
lots of water,

and their presence
wouldn't actually increase

the total amount of water
by much.

What we found was the opposite,

and this is when science gets
really exciting --

is when you're proven wrong.

The unexpected results
are the ones

that make you
take a second look,

and I recalculated everything

just to make sure I wasn't
making a numerical error.

Because the results,
they were spectacular.

The ponds with active beaver
in them

had nine times more open water
in them

than those exact same ponds
when the beavers weren't there.

How they did that
in part was

they were digging
these channels.

The bottom of a beaver pond
is really, really convoluted.

It's like flying
through the Grand Canyon,

where you've got
these deep, furrowed valleys

and dynamic pond bottoms.

Deeper ponds keep more water,

'cause you have less evaporation
coming off of them.

Well, beavers were using that
to their advantage.

They were digging
deeper and deeper

and allowing water
to focus in here,

so the ponds with beaver
had water.

The ponds without beaver didn't.

Plain and simple.

In 2002, we had
the worst drought on record.

The only places where we had
water in natural areas

was where we had beaver.

And farmers
were actually seeking out

neighbors who had beavers
on their landscape

to water their cattle.

So with beavers
back on the land,

even during the worst drought
on record,

they were mitigating
the effects of drought

and keeping water
on the landscape.

NARRATOR: Beavers turn deserts
into gardens.

Dr. Suzanne Fouty

and biologist Carol Evans

could hardly believe
what they found in Nevada.

FOUTY: Oh, my God.

EVANS:
In such a desert environment,

you understand
the value of this.

FOUTY: You know -- okay,

the pictures
don't do it justice.

EVANS: They don't.

FOUTY: Oh --

EVANS: This is just
a view of what --

there's probably about 20 miles
of habitat that looks like this.

FOUTY: And there's vegetation
everywhere.

EVANS: Everywhere.

It's gorgeous!

What you see is just
one series of beaver dams

after another.

Everything else is dry.

All the wildlife, everything
else is keyed into this,

because the uplands
are completely dry.

And if we lost this,

the impact would be enormous.

It is, and...

FOUTY: Wow.

EVANS: That's impressive,
isn't it?

FOUTY: You almost have to get --
you need to feel the wind,

the heat,
you need to see the green.

EVANS: And how --

FOUTY: And the water!

EVANS: I'm seeing a lot
of baby wildlife being produced.

I'm seeing mule deer
with their fawns

up and down this whole thing.

Sandhill cranes
are kind of a rare species

that's declining somewhat.

So this is an important area
for them.

So there's many species
of wildlife

that just key in
to these ribbons of green.

FOUTY: It's just amazing.

Pretty good size,
isn't it?

Let me record
those measurements.

Okay.

So coming off the beaver dam,
1.2 feet.

All right, yes!

Watch out.
It's pretty deep there.

Oh, my God!

Really drops off, huh?

I mean, you're probably
like at 5h feet deep.

EVANS: Five and a half feet
deep, that's really amazing.

The amount of water storage
in here is phenomenal.

If we had gone back twenty years
ago here, Suzanne,

this would have been a --

it would have been
a couple of feet wide

and a couple of inches deep,
and it would have dried up.

NARRATOR: Twenty years ago,
Suzie Creek was a desert.

Much of the Sierra Nevada
has been slowly drying

ever since cattle arrived
200 years ago.

Grass soon withers,
and temperatures soar.

Creeks are muddy trickles.

EVANS: When the summer
temperatures

are in the 90s and 100 degrees,

the stream channel dries out.

We lose our water.

There's no storage mechanism
in the system.

NARRATOR: In desperation,
cattle were kept away

from the most damaged sections
of streams.

Then, a miracle happened.

Young beavers
dispersing from distant rivers

battled up the streams
to start new homes.

They can begin
with next to nothing,

eating grass
and building with silt and mud.

EVANS: Almost overnight,
the beaver came back in here.

And the beaver
returning to Suzie Creek

caught me by surprise.

-That's amazing.
-FOUTY: Wow.

EVANS: You know, it's all about
keeping water on the landscape.

That's the basic building blocks
of life.

FOUTY: The bottom line is,
it's your ace in the hole.

It's the thing that's going to
pull you through the dry times,

the lean times.

If the snow pack's coming off
earlier and ranchers want water,

then we're going to have to
figure out

a way to keep it
on the landscape,

because it's no longer going to
be stored as snow in mountains.

And what beaver do in all these
little itty-bitty streams

is they create these small
savings accounts,

these pockets
where it's stored --

no longer as snow,
but as surface and groundwater.

NARRATOR: Understanding beavers
and how they colonize new areas

is vital if they are to help us.

It's mid-summer
in the Rocky Mountains,

and the new kits
are exploring their world.

The one-year-olds are already
helping more, working with Dad.

The two-year-old apprentice
seems restless.

It's time for him to start
his journey into the unknown.

Occasionally parents come along
to help, but not this time.

He'll head upriver
to establish a territory,

to build a dam and a lodge,
and to start a new life.

He passes through
other beaver territories.

He finds dams broken
and lodges empty.

The trees were depleted here
after five or so years,

and the family moved on.

Only the stone foundations
of the old dams remain.

Even these remnants
slow the flow of the river

and help hold the soil that was
built up in the old ponds.

Along the creeks live trout
and an otter family.

Unlike otters,
beavers don't eat fish.

And otters and fish
don't harm beavers.

But none of them
are as safe here,

compared to living in a deeper,
well-maintained pond.

Predators are all too effective
in the shallows.

Young explorers,

alone and without the protection
of the pond and lodge,

often get into serious trouble.

A lucky few are rescued

and end up in animal rehab.

Timber was placed
in Michele Grant's care

in Ontario, Canada, when he got
into trouble three months back.

He's well enough now
to be taken for walks.

He arrived
injured and traumatized.

GRANT: It turns out
some teenage boys

had found this little fellow,
and they were

pitching him around
like a football.

And some girls saw that,

got the baby away from them,

and found out
that we were a facility

that would be willing
to receive him.

With the other animals
that I've rehabbed,

you want to limit your contact

because to release them
having had too much contact

will be detrimental.

But for the beaver, because
they're so family oriented,

they need to be close,

they need to feel nurtured,
so I worry about that.

NARRATOR: Timber, just one year
old, should still have a year

to learn from parents
and siblings.

But Michele has no other beavers
to help teach him.

GRANT: Heya, buddy.

NARRATOR: She will have to be
his family

and prepare him for the wild.

GRANT: Good morning.

[Timber calling]

Who's a sweet man?

If I had several beavers,

it would be a different
experience.

They would bond with each other

more than having that
relationship with me.

Come here and see me.

Come right out here.

Come right out here and see me.

NARRATOR: One sign of affection
between beavers

is the touching of noses.

GRANT: Hi, who's a sweet boy?

Are you a sweet boy
this morning?

You are a sweet boy.

Come here.
Come here and see me.

Come here and see me.

Come here and see me.

Hi.
Good morning.

Good morning.
Good morning.

NARRATOR: Even in a wild family,

beavers have to learn
basic skills,

like chewing the bark
off sticks.

But now,
months into the process,

Timber is still eating
beaver baby food.

GRANT: We would put sticks in,
we would put branches

and kind of all summer
waited and waited,

and there was no sticks
with the bark chewed off.

I think all your sticks

could still use a little work
there, little man.

NARRATOR: It's a skill
he needs to learn,

or he'll never survive
on his own.

GRANT: We try to provide
an environment

that will nurture behaviors
that are natural for them.

So developmentally
you could just tell

we had kind of reached a spot
where he needed more.

He needed to be
in a pond environment.

Scary, because maybe he would
just swim away

and never come back.

So I made a decision,
murky pond or not,

that I would swim with him,

so that I would be close and he
would feel the safety of family,

but that he could venture out
for his development

and do what beavers do.

Who's the big boy?

NARRATOR: Timber has bonded
with Michele,

and now it's only a question
of timing.

Keep him too long, and he'll
grow too attached to a human,

rejecting the wild beavers
he'll need

to survive when he's
released next year.

GRANT: Are you a hungry boy
these days?

Are you a good boy?

Are you a good boy?

Eh?

NARRATOR: In contrast,
the teenage apprentice,

a year older and traveling
upriver on his own,

has survived.

He has at last found a quiet
section of swampy backwater.

Beavers were here before,
but not recently.

There is a disused lodge

and a half-broken dam.

Maybe the food ran out,
and the family left.

Now the trees are growing back,
and there is plenty to eat.

The sound of escaping water is
all the encouragement he needs.

Beaver dams often outlast
their original builders.

The preserved wood in one dam
was found to be

over a thousand years old.

The water level starts to rise.

In midsummer, many young beavers
are on the move.

If another male appears,

the two-year-old
may have to fight to stay.

Within a few days,
the pond is noticeably deeper.

He's working day and night
to repair the dam,

with only insects and bats
for company.

After a month,
his fairy tale lake is ready.

All he needs now is a princess.

One night, another beaver
comes traveling downstream.

A female.

Beaver courtship is rarely seen.

The couple wrestle and nuzzle
and play.

Very few animals
form partnerships

that last a lifetime.

Like swans, beavers remain
with their mates

for the rest of their lives,
maybe 15 years.

It's enough.

They will change the landscape
together

and restore a lost world.

Reintroducing beavers
to heal the land

is happening
across North America.

[Engine starts]

When Marnie Johnson was a girl,

beavers filled this valley
in Colorado.

I would say there were
at least a dozen beaver dams.

My brother and I loved it,

because if they backed up
enough water,

we could swim, yeah.

NARRATOR: Today Marnie
and her son Mark

dream of returning beavers
to Beaver Creek.

I've known beaver for 81 years,

and it seemed like this valley
should have the beaver

that were here when my father
first came in and homesteaded.

And I've never been happy
about not having the beaver in.

If beaver were here once,
they should be here again.

It's their right to be there,

probably more than ours.

NARRATOR: Five orphaned beavers

are already on their way
from Denver,

with a little help
and a lot of love.

WOMAN: I love you.
No one above you.

No one above you.

Look at, oh, little sweet thing!

NARRATOR: The Johnsons' dream
lies in the hands

of a unique Colorado beautician.

Sherri Tippie rescues unwanted
beavers in the Denver suburbs

and releases them
where they can do the most good.

When she's not cutting hair,
that is.

I am a hairdresser, honey.

I like HBO, I want a toilet
that flushes, okay,

I do not camp out, baby.

I don't do those types
of things,

but for some reason,
when there's wildlife involved,

especially beaver,
I'm kind of fearless.

Now I'm a hairdresser
and a live beaver trapper.

NARRATOR: Sherri taught herself
how to live trap 28 years ago

to stop beavers from being
killed on local golf courses.

Today she's the top live trapper
of beavers in North America.

TIPPIE: Beaver are definitely

a keystone species
to an aquatic ecosystem.

A keystone is like a bridge,

and you have that one stone

that will hold
that whole bridge together,

okay, that locks it in.

Beaver lock
the aquatic ecosystem in.

If you pull that one stone out,
it all collapses in on itself.

Creeks and rivers
are alive with life.

They're supposed to meander.

They're supposed to be curvy
like me.

They move, they support life,
they are life.

And beaver are
the keystone species

that keeps that aquatic life
clicking along.

NARRATOR: These beavers were
rescued from a drainage ditch.

They were battling
to maintain their pond

in the middle
of a new housing development.

TIPPIE: We're asking so much
of these animals,

and we're displacing them.

They've moved into a place
where they should be,

and we don't want them there.

So if we're going to mess around
with them,

then we need to treat them
as well as possible

and then put them at a place

where they can live out
their lives.

[Beavers calling]

NARRATOR: Sherri's priority is
keeping the family together.

TIPPIE: Okay, babies!
How exciting, huh?

Now you're really moving
somewhere.

I don't order them
out of a catalog.

You get what I get.

If a beaver comes in a family,

if they've got like four kits,

that's what you're going to get.

I'm not leaving anybody behind.

[Horn honks]

MARNIE: I'm delighted now

to have the beaver
coming back in.

And I'm not sure
how many there are,

but we're looking forward to it.

Hopefully there'll be babies.

TIPPIE: How you doin'?

MARK: We're doing well.

TIPPIE: We brought you some new
family members.

MARK: This is good.

You always want new population.

This is fantastic.

TIPPIE: I still feel
the excitement.

even though I'm getting
old and crotchety!

MARNIE:
Hello, there.

TIPPIE:
We've had them for a while.

And this little female here,

her mate was hit by a car,
so she's alone.

MARK: Look at the teeth.

MARNIE: Look at the teeth!

It always amazed me
that those little teeth

can go through aspen tree
that big around!

TIPPIE: Hi, girl,
hi, little girl.

And do you know something,

it's not unusual to catch kits
with adults,

and only one time in 28 years

we've caught them
with the female, the mother.

They're always with their dad.

I just love that.

it's like Dad's out
showing them around,

showing them the ropes
and stuff, it's just real sweet.

Yes!

TIPPIE: They are ready.
And they just seem to know, too.

They sure do seem
to know.

I think what we should do is

we'll turn the little girl loose
first.

Look at you,
look at you.

[Beaver calling]

[Laughing]

Isn't that wonderful?

[Beavers calling]

Yeah, yeah, this is good.

[Calling]

Oh, this is a rush,
I'm so pleased.

It's so exciting
to see them come in

and watch them splash
into the clear stream.

If these beaver do

what their primal ancestors did
60 years ago,

where we're standing today will
have four feet of water in it,

and that's exciting.

You've taken
a nearly 85-year-old woman

back through her entire life.

This is something that will --

uh, I don't know how to put it
into words,

because this was my life,
this was how they were.

Love the beaver,
grew up with them.

Thank you.

Thanks.

MARK:
Thank you and thank Sherri.

NARRATOR: Sherri's joy is
tempered by her knowledge

that reintroducing beavers
is not without risk.

TIPPIE: We gave beaver
to a sheep rancher,

and lions got them.

So that's sad, so we didn't put
beaver there again, you know.

So I'm like anxious for them,
but then I have

the best wishes for them.

There just comes a time when you
have to let your kids go

and build their own life,
you know.

NARRATOR: In northern Ontario,

Michele Grant schools Timber,
the rescued one-year-old.

There's a year of training
planned

before he needs to be ready.

In between trips,
he's making progress.

GRANT: Here,
show me your sticks.

He has started to demonstrate
the potential building,

and we have his first stick.

Is that your stick,
is that your stick?

Just this early September

he started chewing sticks,
so that's become quite exciting.

You know, I think they develop
at different times,

but he's now starting to do

all the natural things
that he should do.

Slowly it's all coming together.

He'll go through the pond,

and he just comes back to me
as kind of a safety net.

He's becoming secure in himself

and secure in his abilities
at the pond.

I think the biggest thing
that I've seen from him

is his ability to swim
and breath-hold is amazing.

From the first time
I had him down,

he maybe went underwater for
three to five seconds, really.

And now I lose him,

he's gone for maybe
up to a minute or more.

Good boy, who's a good boy, eh?

Who's a good boy?

NARRATOR: Still,
Michele believes

Timber is not nearly ready
to go it alone.

GRANT: We certainly have a ways
to go in his development

and certainly they don't mature
till they're two.

He would not make it through
his first year on his own.

NARRATOR: But Timber appears to
disagree, and suddenly vanishes.

GRANT: You could always feel
his presence.

And I couldn't.

And so I knew he wasn't there,

there was no beaver
in that pond.

He was gone.

NARRATOR:
She searched for six hours.

Now all Michele can do is wait.

Fall is a busy time
for wild beavers.

In the Rocky Mountains and away
from home for the first time,

a two-year-old
has repaired a vacant pond

and managed to find
a young mate.

The couple
is fixing up the lodge.

As soon as the kits come,
it will fall to the young male

to keep their home sealed
and secure all winter --

just like his dad showed him.

Inside, they have hollowed out
chambers for sleeping and eating

and have made
several underwater entrances.

The end of summer is when
beavers stock their larder,

and this inexperienced pair
may have left it too late.

Beavers don't hibernate,
so they'll need food.

They set to work cutting trees
and storing them underwater.

Branches are wedged in the mud
so that they remain underwater.

The pond will freeze
on the surface,

but their stores will stay fresh
and accessible all winter.

At least, that's the plan.

Moose also eat leaves and
branches, and as the aspen turn,

a young male
tries to take advantage

of the beavers' hard work
and raid the larder.

[Splash]

The beaver tries to head off
the moose.

[Moose bellowing]

Stocking
the underwater food store

is as important a job as
managing the dam or the lodge.

They race against
the oncoming winter.

Back in Ontario,
Michele Grant's first attempt

to bring up an orphaned beaver
has gone wrong.

Timber disappeared weeks ago,
and there's no sign of him.

Today, she's blaming herself.

GRANT: What did I do?
Did I make the right moves?

I'm constantly wondering,
did I do the right things?

I felt that I needed to continue
to look for him,

to find evidence
one way or the other

whether he survived.

So I went out regularly,

and several weeks
after he had released,

I found a beaver skull
out in the field

that had come from the pond.

I've never found a beaver skull
in that field before.

I truly, I was devastated.

I thought, "I'm not even sure
if I can continue rehab work,"

because I wasn't ready for that,
I wasn't prepared,

it wasn't kind of the story
I'd written

of how I wanted his release
to go.

So, it was shocking for me.

And then one day I went
to a neighbor's pond

and...

GRANT ON HOME VIDEO: Hi!
Good to see you!

He was there.

Within a very short period
of time,

I saw him interacting
with an adult beaver.

There was a mom,
there was two kits,

and he appeared to take on
the role of the yearling --

part of raising the young ones,

being part
of this beaver family.

And he surfaced
right beside my kayak,

just through the lily pads.

And there I looked down,
and there was this little head.

You look well.

You have a beautiful family.

[Timber calls]

And then the mom
or one of the kits had come by

and rippled the water,

and it was time to go back
and be part of his family,

and he just dove down,
and off he went.

So it was awesome.

It was like, "Thanks very much,
but I'm wild."

Honestly, as a rehabber,

hoping that I was doing
the right things,

it was all validated
in that moment.

NARRATOR: If any animal

can represent
the spirit of North America,

it should be the beaver.

They battle the elements
with courage,

furnish a home they built
themselves,

and support a devoted family.

Like the early settlers,

beavers stock up a larder,

then hunker down for the winter.

Outside, wolves and coyotes
are hungry and homeless.

Bears retreat
to hibernate the months away.

For a pair
of young wild beavers,

the larder runs out
before spring arrives.

The male has to risk
the predators to collect food.

[Animals calling]

Beavers do slow down a bit
in winter,

but they still keep busy,
sorting out food and bedding.

They need to.

There's a new family on the way.

And they are not alone.

Inside the lodge are lodgers.

A muskrat couple.

They share the grass
and branches the beavers supply.

While it's minus twenty outside,

it's rarely been known
to freeze inside.

So it's also a refuge for frogs
and insects.

There's a deer mouse family.

It's quite a hotel to run
all winter.

Beavers, with their ponds
in summer watering the desert

and their lodges and larders
in winter,

support the whole community.

They all seem to get along.

In fact, there was
only one intruder

the beavers objected to,

and that was us
and our little cameras,

which they soon dealt with.

Perhaps, after all we've put
them through for centuries,

we owe them a bit of space.

To learn more about what you've
seen on this "Nature" program,