Photo: Nikolai Panteleev
Yesterday’s “welcome to canada” footage was shot by Nikolai Panteleev while driving in Quebec on Christmas Day.The poor little beaver had wandered out to traffic and was having a hard time getting back across the lanes of impatient drivers eager to get to aunt josephine’s for the holiday brunch. Nikolai pulled over and got out of his car with camera in hand. He tried to shoo the fellow across the lanes and got bit for his effort. Undaunted he returned with a snow brush and pushed him along while traffic eventually stopped to let the strange procession by.
Photo: Nikolai Panteleev
A heroic deed by beaver standards, and one that I am very grateful for.
The beaver escaped into the nearby woods and an annoying SUV that had tried to pass on the right shoulder spun out on the ice and crashed while the beaver romped away towards freedom. Sometimes Karma is kind. Nikolai was soon contacted by the Discovery Channel who wanted to purchase his footage. The video you saw yesterday was made by another filmmaker using the footage as well.The local papers (english and russian) ran stories of the event and it was a Christmas to remember.
Photo: Nikolai Panteleev
Nikolai, who by my reckoning is fluent in at least 4 languages, wrote the following account for the Discovery Channel:
HIGHWAY BEAVERY: Incident: A beaver is wandering down
the Transcanada Hwy as traffic whizzes by. Nikolai stops his car
to help the beaver out of danger. The beaver makes it across the
road. A SUV tries to pass on the icy shoulder but spins out into
a snow bank. The beaver walks away safely towards the woods.
He enjoyed visiting the website and seeing our beaver videos in which the beavers are refreshingly not in dangerous traffic. He wrote enthusiastically;
From my part, I enormously enjoyed your lovely Beaver Tango clip, made it my favorite and shared with my friends. If the mood gets lower, I would watch it for another couple of times, and then feel myself much better. I enjoyed viewing the website you mentioned and, yes, of course, I would like to contribute in different ways.
Gosh Nikolai, you already have!
