This morning Choppa is in the news again! You remember him. He was that little yearling that ‘escaped’ from the Kansas children’s zoo and created a stir in the community when he strove for freedom. He eventually was recapture and has returned to captive life, but a local artist and musician posted a picture on his face book page with a pleas for his safe release.
“He was desperately trying to claw and chew his way out of his cage, so much so that he was bleeding from his mouth,” Hickey wrote in the caption accompanying the photograph. “I’m not an activist or a political person, but it was unbearable to watch, so I have to say something. This animal hides all day because it doesn’t like humans gawking at it, then at night it injures itself in a frantic but futile attempt to escape from its prison.”
This of course prompted worry and outrage and upset calls to the zoo that did their best to soothe jangled nerves with an article in the Wichita Eagle. Apparently ‘rumors of his death had been greatly exaggerated’.
Despite what you may have heard, Chapa the beaver is fine, city says
Wichita officials on Wednesday moved to calm local concerns about the health of Chapa the beaver, whose wandering ways a few years ago turned him into a local celebrity and landed him on this year’s Riverfest poster.
Local writer, gamer, artist and musician Esper Jared Hickey posted a photograph of Chapa on his Facebook page Tuesday, taken at the Kansas Wildlife Exhibit in Central Riverside Park the night before.
Hickey’s post prompted a number of responses, including one from a woman who wrote “Why does that zoo even still exist? It’s so cruel to the animals.”
But Stacey Hamm, director of marketing and development for Wichita Park and Recreation, said in an e-mail response to questions Wednesday that Chapa and his cage are in normal condition.
“Beavers are nocturnal rodents that are seldom active during the day,” Hamm said. “Chapa spends a lot of time in his den during the day. Beavers have different tooth enamel than people. Their front incisors are large and visible. The outer enamel of those teeth is much harder than ours and has a brownish color.”
Chapa receives all proper veterinary care, Hamm said, and “gets all he wants to eat.” Staff weave and stack tree branches that Chapa labors to disassemble every night. What has changed recently, Hamm said, is that the waterfall at a small pond next to the exhibit has been turned on.
“Chapa hears the noise of rushing water and it makes him want to go dam it up,” she said.
Chapa gained fame two years ago when he broke out of his enclosure in Central Riverside Park and spent several days on the lam before he was spotted swimming in the Arkansas River. A couple of days later
, he was discovered trying to dig his way back into his cage.
His escapades landed him on this year’s Riverfest poster.
Now, I agree totally that a beaver is nocturnal and will likely stay in his hole all day and come out at night, and I agree that his teeth are continuing to grow so it’s likely he gnaws on the cage all night, but he must get lonely and bored sometimes. Honestly, is there anyway to read the zoo assurances and not hear echoes of the smarmy reassurance “the norwegian blue prefers sleeping on its back“?
I heard from Glynnis Hood yesterday that she uses similar observations to infer the age of the beaver based on its incisor size shown on wood gnawings as Peter Busher. And we studiously checked our chews, finding that marks weren’t all the same size, even on the same pieces of wood, which could mean the different beavers are helping but might also mean that tooth marks change depending on the angle of the head.
Jon had the excellent point, ‘If I chew an apple my teeth marks don’t look the same with every bite”. Which I pointed out to Glynnis and to which she admitted that it hasn’t actually ever been studied and is just an informed guess.
Well then!
Rusty went to Bill Leikam’s fox talk last night at the Napa Library and saw this on his way home. Lucky bastard. 🙂
