It’s good to see that mlive picked up Nancy May’s story and did a profile of it. The more people that know this story the better chance that the next beavers will stick around longer.

Mackinac Island’s beloved beaver family has disappeared one by one

Beaver in snowy waters: Nancy May, Mackinac

Vanishing Act:

MACKINAC ISLAND, MI – A beaver family that had become social media darlings to locals and tourists alike on Mackinac Island began disappearing one by one earlier this year, with the family’s last kit vanishing this month.

Some believe the animals fell victim to illegal trapping. A few believe someone on the island must know something about what happened to them, prompting a GoFundMe effort to raise reward money for information.

As their absence from “the Cove” continues to be felt, we’re taking a look back at their antics which captured so much attention in recent years. It comes courtesy of Nancy May, an island resident whose photos of the beaver parents and their kits drew avid followers on Facebook.

May has shared some of her pictures with MLive readers, and her story of how she became one of their biggest fans.

Nancy’s touching article (which we printed a week ago) appears with her great photos that I was happy to see. It is followed with some comments from the furbearer specialist of the Michigan Department of natural resources, which seem less likely.

Adam Bump, a furbearer specialist with the Michigan Department of Natural Resource’s Wildlife Division, said while he can’t speak to this particular beaver family on Mackinac Island, he does know that some animals like their privacy. And they don’t necessarily need all the help that people think they might to survive Michigan’s harsh winters.

He wondered in this case if perhaps there were too many people coming too close to the lodge.

“Some beavers can get used to people and have no issues,” Bump said of the species, clever little wetland engineers which can be found throughout Michigan’s watersheds. “But the repeated, constant presence of people could be a potential reason” for their disappearance, he said.

“Maybe something happened there and they moved on their own?” He would recommend that people enjoy and watch wild animals from a distance, knowing that they “do OK on their own.”

Okay, Adam. I’ll agree it’s better when people keep their distance. But that doesn’t explain why the beavers lived their happily with their fan base for 6 years and then decided to leave? I’d be more likely to think that after the big freeze and damage to their lodge they assumed they needed to find a safer home in deeper water to raise this family, but that doesn’t really explain why didn’t the kits leave earlier?

I don’t know. I’ve been around beavers a long time, and I have seen kits make crazy decisions without their family. So to be honest, my minds not exactly made up on this story. It wouldn’t surprise me to know they were killed, because there are always villians in the beaver drama, but it also wouldn’t totally surprise me to learn they found a new home somewhere else, and that the kits just stuck around for a while and then made their way there eventually.

If harm came to these beavers from human hands, you would think the story would travel. These beavers were so visible that someone knows what happened and beaver rumors have a way of getting spread. If, on the other hand, the beavers just decided on their own to throw in the towel and start over somewhere else, they wouldn’t talk about it.

For now I’m going to a hope that there’s a chance they’re doing okay.

What I know for sure is that the world is a better place when people gather together to protect and observe beavers, and that learning about the wild neighbors of your community is always worth doing. I know that children who are given the chance to witness beaver families are smarter and stronger than children who don’t. And that any woman who photographs beavers through many seasons will be forever transformed by the experience.

Thank you again, Nancy.