BILLINGS – This week ZooMontana welcomes two more animals to its family. Zoo keepers are calling these two month old beavers “Xena” and “Hercules,” although, they tell us they may be holding a contest to find official names for the babies. Story is the beavers were orphaned when their mother died in a dam building accident. The animals are in quarantine right now, but will be debuted for the public at Zoo-Fari on July 24
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A Dam-building accident? Really? Was mom using a crane to lift heavy steel-girders into place and one just slipped and suddenly orphaned her children? Did she accidentally fall on a long sharpened branch and impale herself? Or maybe there was a washout and she drowned? Hmm. I bet this is this the kind of ‘dam accident’ where the property owners hated beavers, destroyed the dam, and waited until they came to fix it that night before shooting everything furry they could see. The exterminating-hero(es) didn’t realize there were kits in the lodge until they came out whining and hungry. I guess that’s a kind of accident. I was thinking about the zoo’s assumption that these were ‘orphans’ given the fact our dad and 2-year old are caring for the kits now, but then I realized that the accident-causer(s) probably shot enough beavers to be certain they were ‘orphans’.
Ahhh, reminds me of the old favorite tune; “I still miss you honey, but my aim is getting better!”
Good luck, Montana. Hey, I have an idea. Why not use the interest in these adorable fuzzballs to teach visitors about the value of beaver in the watershed and to educate about the solutions to common beaver problems? Wouldn’t that be a great way to honor your ‘orphans’? Meanwhile, our logo designer, Kiriko Moth, offers this lovely update to our logo in mom’s honor. It;s very fitting, don’t you think?
