Beavers Behaving Badly Natural World

To many, this picturesque town appears a rural idyll.

A living evocation of the American frontier spirit.

But it's also a town under siege.

Unseen, operating largely at night,

an interloper from the wild is creating havoc.

It is a conflict between nature and civilisation.

I planted this tree, I loved this tree, it was beautiful,

it had really pretty flowers in the springtime.

-Busy beaver.

-Yeah, he sure is.

WOOD CRACKS

The culprit is...

the beaver.

They can create quite a bit of damage, one way or another.

Whether felling trees...

..or damming up waterways, they cause chaos.

It took one or two nights,

and everything was almost wiped out.

-When that happens, tempers get frayed.

-GUN IS COCKED

I think a lot of people shoot them.

GUNSHOT

And there seems no end in sight.

It's become an issue because we never had a way of remedying that

without either removing them or...

killing them.

With humans and beavers living in such close proximity,

is there no answer to...

beavers behaving badly?

We'll be back, and we'll just keep spinning our wheels

until there can be a final resolution.

George Richert for the Ten O'Clock News.

BIRDS TWEET

The magnificent Teton Mountains in Wyoming

overlook one of America's great wilderness treasure troves...

..the Grand Teton National Park.

With spring around the corner,

soon it'll be thronging with tourists...

..enticed by the stunning scenery, and tantalised by the prospect

of a close encounter with some of America's most iconic species.

But with winter's icy grip still evident,

the Park remains the preserve of its wildlife.

And the thaw cues the appearance...

..of beavers.

These aquatic rodent rascals have spent the long winter months

holed up inside their lodges.

Only slipping out to retrieve branches

and twigs from their underwater food caches.

With supplies almost at an end,

they take the opportunity to pilfer fresh shoots and branches.

But even now the clock is ticking.

Soon, young adults will be run out of the lodge

to make their own way in the world.

They'll have just six months to find a mate,

establish their own homes, and build a food supply big enough

to sustain them through Wyoming's long, cold winter.

Fortunately, for these beavers, just a few miles downstream,

is a ready supply of well-established trees and

unoccupied ponds, just waiting to be colonised by an enterprising animal.

It's called Jackson Hole.

The problem is Jackson Hole's existing residents aren't

necessarily keen on sharing space with these furry invaders.

Beavers can do an awful lot of damage very quickly.

It's amazing what they can do in one night.

In financial terms, I think the beavers are costing me

between 8,000 to 10,000.

We've either got to figure out how to live with them, or we need to...

..exterminate them.

The town revels in its Wild West heritage

and given it was named after a 19th century beaver trapper,

you might imagine the response to an invasion of troublesome beavers

would be a run on ammunition in the local gun store.

GUN IS COCKED

Well, not exactly.

GUN IS UNCOCKED

Jackson boasts its own beaver buster, Drew Reid.

Like a Wild West sheriff, Drew is tasked with sorting out

any conflict between humans and beavers.

People start noticing damage when things start falling out here,

the beavers start getting a little more active

and they don't want it to get out of hand.

So that's when I come in and try to help them out.

One of the worst cases of beaver damage I've ever seen was

a property that had been unattended for a couple of weeks,

and when I showed up to take a look at the damage,

there were approximately 50 very large trees down.

It was basically beaver Armageddon.

Drew's usual solution is to humanely trap problem beavers

before relocating them to wilderness areas around Jackson.

And with spring knocking on his door...

..he's getting ready for the phone to start ringing.

So, this is where my traps have been sitting all winter

to stay away from other scents that can get on

and cause some issues when we're trapping.

These are kind of my designated beaver gloves, if you will,

and we try to remember to wear our gloves every time

so we don't get our own scent on here.

It may not be that big of an issue, but we just don't take any chances.

Before going on duty, Drew likes to make sure his equipment

is in proper working order.

Let's get this thing set.

Known as suitcase traps, these devices snap closed

around the beaver, encasing it in a steel mesh cage.

But if the springs are rusty or the trigger catches, the trap could

malfunction, potentially injuring the beaver or allowing it to escape.

Let's test this guy out,

make sure it's strong enough to work for us this year.

I like that, that's strong enough.

A lot of people comment on how violent these traps are,

but it's better than a bullet in the head.

Drew isn't the only person in Jackson whose workload

is altered by the beaver's emergence.

Wildlife cameraman Jeff Hogan has been filming beavers for 30 years.

And the spring thaw is his cue to check up on some old friends.

This is one of my favourite beaver ponds. It's really old.

It's just this giant lodge down there, under the pond,

a beautiful big dam

that makes a beautiful big pond that runs off to the North.

The Tetons make up a wonderful backdrop,

and the light here is just stunning in the evening.

This dam is the sexiest dam out of the lot.

My favourite angle, you know, is to shoot nice and low

so that you're eye-to-eye to the beaver.

It's a wonderful perspective.

Like most cameramen, Jeff knows that filming wildlife is a waiting game.

We've got a beaver right over here.

He's just surfaced.

Oh, wow! There you go.

They're the largest rodents in North America.

But, even so, they're shy, wary creatures that like to

stick to the protective environment of their pond.

They generally don't come out until just before dusk.

And it's only once night has fallen...

BEAVER MUNCHES ON TREE

..that they really get to work.

They slip back to the lodge around dawn.

So, often the only visible sign of a beaver's presence...

..is the clues it leaves behind.

But there's always the exception.

It's midday.

Drew's been called out by a caretaker who's concerned

about the sudden appearance of a beaver on one of his properties.

-Looks like me in the morning.

-Yeah!

THEY LAUGH

The property is surrounded with young aspen and cottonwood trees.

It's all very tempting for beavers, given they survive almost

exclusively on a diet of twigs, leaves, and tree bark.

You know, they've been relying on their food caches

all winter long, chewing on old bark, and this fresh vegetation,

probably like candy to these guys.

The landowner has wrapped a lot of his trees to protect them.

But even that won't put off a really determined rodent.

They damage the landscaping, they kill a lot of trees,

they plug up the outlets

so that the water level comes up and floods the yard.

The last batch of beavers we had in this pond probably

did 10,000 damage overnight.

I think I'll go ahead and set most of these traps on this pond.

Most homeowners want any interloping beavers trapped

and relocated as soon as possible.

Especially if they're as brazen as this one.

I've never seen one quite that indifferent before.

To increase the chances of a successful capture,

Drew camouflages the trap...

He's watching me right now do this.

..before baiting it with a scent lure.

The lure is designed to draw the target in through sheer curiosity.

It mimics the smell another beaver would make

when marking its territory with...

..a urine-based paste.

How vile does that stuff smell?

-HE SNIFFS

-Mm.

-It's not too bad.

-No. But it's pungent.

I love the smell of this stuff.

Whether the lure will work with this beaver

is another matter altogether.

Exposing itself like this in the middle of the day

is distinctly un-beaver-like behaviour.

Did you train this beaver?

Yes, my radio-controlled beaver. I got it here for you.

LAUGHTER

A second trap should increase Drew's chances of a capture.

Although this beaver appears underwhelmed.

This might be his way of saying, "Yeah, right(!) Nice traps."

"I've seen those before!" Yeah, exactly!

Sure you want to move him?

See you in the morning, beave.

Adult beavers are very difficult to age

and almost impossible to sex without a very intimate examination.

But the chances are this is a two-year-old adult,

the age at which beavers are usually pushed out of the lodge.

Beavers are monogamous and breed during the winter.

Let's face it, locked in by the ice for months on end,

there's not much else to do.

They'll typically have a litter of two to four kits in the spring.

Initially, these kits will live off their mother's milk,

and they'll start swimming after a few days.

Then, after about a month,

they'll be weaned onto a diet of twigs and leaves.

Lucky them.

Their fur isn't waterproof initially, but that all changes

thanks to continual massaging with...bodily secretions.

This tireless grooming also helps maintain

an additional waterproofing layer of air within their fur.

After two years, during which time

a couple more litters may have swelled the growing family,

it'll be "heigh-ho and off you go" for these adolescent beavers

as they get shoved out of the lodge

to make way for their younger siblings.

Using streams, rivers and waterways, these young adults,

known as dispersers or...

floaters,

may travel several miles in search of a mate

and an unoccupied waterway in which to set up home.

It's often these renegade rodents

that Drew is called out to deal with in the spring.

He's returned to find out if he's caught the remote-controlled beaver.

Uh...

Oh, you gotta be kidding me!

Well, trap's empty. It's not good.

There's going to be times where I don't capture beavers. I'm not 100%.

You know, they're just... sometimes better than I am.

There are no fresh signs of damage,

so it looks like the beaver was just casing the joint

rather than actually moving in.

Skunked again.

Gotta love springtime trapping...

With several other calls to respond to,

Drew decides not to leave the traps in place any longer.

Ah, I'll be able to put these traps to use somewhere else, anyways.

'The beavers plug the culverts and create flooding problems.'

We were gone for a couple of days and came back.

And I left my flower garden. It was flooded.

It was almost up to my knees, and...

..needless to say, that was a major inconvenience,

and the flowers are suffering.

Drew's been called out by another caretaker,

who's chanced upon some incriminating evidence.

Chewed-on branches right there in the water. It's pretty typical.

Beavers will often turn a shallow cove like this

into a makeshift restaurant,

pulling branches into the water, where they can safely eat the bark.

Any tree in the vicinity is easy pickings...

..and the culprit here appears to have been particularly determined.

I honestly have never seen a beaver chewing through netting like this.

The branches aren't just used as a food supply.

They get recycled as building materials.

Not a trick you can play with hamburgers.

So, where's the activity at?

And it's the sudden appearance of a lodge

that alerted this caretaker to his new arrivals.

So, this is quite a bit bigger than it was last time I was here.

All these branches on top of that mud are new,

and all this debris here in the water is new.

OK.

So far, the damage is fairly minor,

but if the beavers build a dam on the pond outlet,

the rising water level could easily flood the house,

which is worth several million dollars.

What was that?

There he goes, right there. Check it out.

That's him swimming right over there.

Well, it's proof positive!

THEY LAUGH

Saying hello!

-Right, I've seen what I need to see. Let's go get the traps.

-All right.

A second beaver appears while Drew's back is turned.

So it's a good job he's brought two traps.

The beavers are probably unable to make out the traps,

as their sight is relatively poor.

But their sense of smell is excellent,

and their noses are clearly telling them that Drew represents a threat.

A violent slap of the tail is a beaver's main defence mechanism,

a way of telling an intruder, human or otherwise, to back off.

DREW LAUGHS

OK, that trap's hot.

With two traps set, Drew is happy to leave the beavers to it.

If everything goes to plan,

they'll be in custody by the morning.

Good luck, beave.

BIRDSONG

Uh-oh.

We've got one.

Good. First one of the season.

Unfortunately, it looks like

the second beaver has evaded the long arm of the law.

Bummer we didn't get the other one. But we'll get it.

The chances of a successful relocation will be improved

if Drew can catch both beavers and then release the pair together.

OK...

So he leaves a couple of traps in place

before escorting the first beaver from the premises.

-TV REPORT:

-Nature appears to have the upper hand

since animal-cruelty complaints

stopped the practice of drowning the beavers.

News 4's George Richert

reports that the industrious rodents are as busy as ever.

Beavers are prolific builders,

chewing down and dragging whatever trees they can to build a dam.

While he's waiting to see if his traps snare the second beaver,

Drew's keeping the first one in a temporary holding facility.

We've got a 39-pound beaver,

which technically - and it is just an estimate -

is a three-year-old beaver.

The beaver is ear-tagged.

Got it. Perfect.

If Drew finds it in the wild,

he'll be able to judge how far it's travelled.

And if it's re-caught, he'll be able to clock it as a repeat offender.

Put you away, hopefully for just the night.

See you in the morning!

Drew's thoughts turn to beaver number two.

But, despite leaving his traps out for several nights...

..he draws a blank.

It doesn't look like we got the other one.

Struck out.

It looks like it's moved on.

Beavers will travel miles in search of a suitable pond,

so Drew's chances of capturing it now are effectively nil.

Well, it's aggravating as hell not to catch the second beaver.

The other beaver has been in the trailer for three days now,

so I'm going to have to go release that particular beaver.

'I just can't hold it any longer.'

With the detainee safely transferred to a...beaver box...

..Drew takes it to a release point well away from town.

OK, let's get this beaver out of here.

You're fine. Yeah, there you go.

There you go, buddy.

HE CHUCKLES

Hopefully, the beaver will find another mate

and a good spot in which to establish a new home.

So, this is the first beaver of the season.

Mostly likely there's going to be 30, maybe 40 more of these to go.

Hopefully, the vast majority of them do good things and...

..I don't have to capture them again!

Beavers are a keystone species, and as long as they're in the wild,

the ponds they create benefit a huge range of wildlife...

..which is why Drew's employers, the Wyoming Wetlands Society,

started the relocation programme in the first place.

Well, the beaver relocation programme is kind of a win-win situation.

We're taking an animal that could potentially be killed

just because it's just doing its own thing.

And you're moving it to an area that it can do some really good work.

It's thought that 80% of the local wildlife

benefit from wetlands in some form or fashion.

At one time, beavers were widespread throughout the USA.

But the European fashion for felt hats

meant that fur trappers decimated their populations

in the 18th and 19th centuries.

It was only after a series of reintroduction programmes

were carried out in the last century

that beavers became widespread again,

inevitably bringing them into conflict

with another expanding population...

..humans.

I understand their necessity in the ecosystem.

I just wish they would do what they like to do on someone else's land.

You know, I'm not at all opposed

to trapping a beaver and using its pelt.

My wife has a nice, wonderful beaver vest with a bobcat fringe.

You know?

Oh, this is nice. Yeah, this is real nice.

Jeff has found a new spot for filming wildlife.

Oh, very nice, very nice.

Well, this is lovely.

It's a hotel and cabin complex close to the centre of Jackson.

With a stream running through the grounds, it's a haven for wildlife.

And Jeff's been tipped off about one particular pair of new arrivals.

Oh! Wow, there you go!

This is great!

Now, these beavers are just swimming in and out through here.

There's over 100 cabins here,

and they've just made this place their home.

I never would have expected it. It's just absolutely amazing.

The attraction for the beavers is obvious.

There's fresh food on hand...

the perfect spot to start a lodge...

a creek providing access to additional supplies,

and the presence of people will ensure

there are no natural predators sniffing around

looking for an easy kill.

So, this has been a very successful night.

We've seen two beavers.

And I will keep checking in on this place

and just see how it progresses.

A little warning.

It seems the beavers haven't proved popular with everybody.

Basically, the decision was made

by the landowner and some of the neighbours that...

the beavers had to go, so...

hopefully we can help them out there and help the beavers out.

OK, the trap's hot.

Thanks to Jeff's diligence,

Drew knows there are two beavers living here.

So he's brought his 'n' hers traps.

Come back tomorrow and see what we got.

He may not have to wait that long.

Keep an eye on the trap. He's going to the trap.

Maybe it's his aftershave,

but once again he's tricked a beaver into breaking cover.

Come on, get on there...

Come on.

We got ya!

Look at that! HE CHUCKLES

Welcome to Jackson.

Hey...!

As Drew knows only too well,

there's nothing better than catching a beaver at the end of the day...

Don't you bite my leg!

..unless it's waking up to another one the next morning.

Let's see what we got here, if we got anything.

Yeah, yeah!

We got ya!

You're fine.

You're fine.

You're all right.

This makes me happy. I didn't want to break up another happy home.

It's not just a case of playing happy families.

Releasing the beavers as a pair

means they'll double both their food-finding capacity

and their labour force when it comes to establishing a new home...

That's good.

Key factors which could ensure a successful relocation.

On to the next pair.

If we didn't have somebody like Drew around,

it'd be a real big problem here.

Having to come out here two or three times a week,

pull sticks out of the culvert

interrupts my day,

then I either got to come out here at night after work

or first thing in the morning,

and then, if I leave for a weekend, I might come back to a big mess.

It's summer, and tourists are flocking into town,

keen to enjoy a Wild West experience and the chance to view the wildlife.

Even the humble beaver gets its own summer fan club.

CAMERAS CLICK

But for most beavers, there's no time to bask in the limelight.

For these relentless rodents,

spring and summer is prime dam-building time...

..when old dams are patched up after early-season floods

and fresh ones are built to establish new ponds.

Their dams can extend remarkable distances.

In fact, the largest known one, in Alberta, Canada,

is over half a mile long.

These huge structures are created thanks to a mixture of tireless work

and the beavers' amazing evolutionary adaptations.

Their front paws are dextrous enough to manoeuvre branches into place.

And they can walk on their back feet,

freeing up their front paws to carry mud up to the dam...

..before stuffing it in to make the construction watertight.

With webbed rear feet and a powerful flipper-shaped tail...

..they're agile swimmers,

capable of shuttling back and forth with the minimum of effort.

And exceeding the best human divers,

they can hold their breath for up to 15 minutes...

..plenty of time to excavate mud from the bottom of the pond.

This mud fest is a win-win for the beavers.

As well as supplying valuable building materials,

all that digging makes the pond deeper,

making it less likely to freeze solid during winter.

Once the dam is finished, the area behind it floods,

and the beavers can just swim up to fresh supplies of trees and bushes.

Although they will travel across land,

beavers know there's much less chance

of being jumped by a bear or a wolf if they stick to the water.

And by cunningly digging canals and channels,

they can extend the pond to reach any choice specimens.

Big trees make such tempting targets,

because as far as a beaver's concerned,

all those branches and twigs

make them a supermarket and building merchant's rolled into one.

And their incredibly strong jaw muscles,

combined with sharp, enamelled incisors,

mean no tree is safe from their felling felony.

With their lives dependent on these acts of arboreal anarchy,

it's no surprise that a single beaver

can fell more than 200 trees a year...

..which is why Jackson residents call in Drew

at the first sign of trouble.

-We got a lot of activity just right here.

-Right, right.

-Oh, he's taken a tree down right here.

-Oh, there's two trees.

-Oh, yeah.

-That tree right there.

You know, if you look over towards that house, Jeff,

there's some prize aspens over there really close to the house.

They want the beavers gone.

Drew's hoping Jeff's specialist surveillance skills

will help determine how many beavers are responsible for the damage.

Oh, oh, beaver.

-See that? Now, here he goes, scent marking.

-Keep it down, keep it down.

It might be a reaction to Drew and Jeff's arrival,

but by smearing its own unique urine-based paste

over a specially constructed mound,

this beaver is making a clear statement.

He's saying, "This is my pond. Period."

It's not just marking out its territory.

This beaver has been busy in other ways, too.

He's got quite a bit of food stashed over there.

These aren't just preparations for winter.

If this beaver is single,

a well-appointed pond might help attract a mate.

He's found himself a wonderful place to live...

as far as he's concerned.

I was about to say, he's going to get evicted soon.

Any eviction will depend on trapping the beaver,

and Drew is relying on his scent lure to work its magic.

OK, it's hot.

So far, Drew's lure doesn't seem to be working.

I think he's literally munching on the lawn.

I've never seen a beaver grazing like that.

Starter over, it's time to think about the main course.

-Oh, he's thinking about that tree, though, man.

-Uh-oh.

Sneaky little bugger!

Perhaps it's got a whiff of the lure...

..but something has distracted the beaver's attention from its stomach.

Back to the water.

Yeah, let's get this done quick. That beaver wants back over here.

Let's get out of here.

Good luck, beave.

With so many large trees at risk,

Drew knows his traps are all that stand

between the property and another beaver Armageddon.

Ah, we got him, we got him, man.

-Oh!

-Smaller than I thought.

-DREW CHUCKLES

-It IS smaller!

Let's get this guy out of here.

Say goodbye to your first home, buddy.

Drew is taking this beaver over 40 miles away,

way out into the Bridger-Teton National Forest.

It's an area that's home to deer, elk and even cougars,

all species that will benefit from a beaver creating new wetlands.

See ya, buddy.

Off he goes, into this new home territory.

You can get into all the trouble you want up here. Just stay out of town.

So far, it's been a relatively slow year for Drew.

But as summer rolls on...

Sounds good! HE LAUGHS

..the calls start flooding in.

There you go.

And Drew knows that as winter approaches,

beaver activity will snowball.

OK, buddy.

When I planted some big willows and five or six aspens many years ago,

1,500 worth of willows, 1,000 worth of aspen,

one night they're there

and the next morning they're in a pile in the middle of the pond.

Since that time, I've definitely been in defence mode.

It's autumn...

..and human activity around Jackson is slacking off.

But beaver activity has gone into overdrive.

Winter is just weeks away, and, like people and Christmas,

beavers know that there are only so many "shopping days"

before the ice comes.

Top of the list is preparing their hide-out.

Beavers can build a new lodge in just 20 days,

shifting around three tonnes of material in the process.

Even existing lodges get a make-over.

Extra mud and sticks provide insulation against the cold.

And once this surface layer freezes,

it'll prevent any desperate predators

like wolves, cougars or coyotes breaking in in search of a snack.

With their lives dependent on these preparations,

it's make-or-break time for beavers and their families.

And sometimes they get support where they might least expect it.

The beaver were here first.

We want to protect them and see if we can't find that happy medium.

We're the ones that are crowding the wildlife.

We're the ones that planted the trees that they need.

It's really not the beavers' problem.

We're kind of creating it, in a sense.

So we're here to try to find harmony with the beaver

and peace in our neighbourhoods as we move into his habitat.

Oh, right here. Look at this.

Drew's calls aren't always motivated by

people worried about the damage beavers cause.

This does completely freeze over in the winter,

so I don't know whether it'll freeze all the way down or...

That's the crucial part.

This time, he's been called out by a local homeowner

who's concerned about a beaver

that's been spotted in this shallow irrigation ditch.

If they were to stick around here at this point, it would...

COULD essentially be a suicide mission,

trying to live in this ditch for the winter.

If this ditch freezes up completely,

the beaver will be forced to forage on land,

making it easy meat for any predator.

It's not a good place for them long-term.

It doesn't really sound like a good place for them in the short term.

I mean, I think...

you know, one way or the other, they really need to live somewhere else.

We'll do what we can, but if Jeff can give me a better idea,

that'll be helpful.

Absolutely.

Agh!

HE STRAINS

Jeff is dealing with a blockage.

Ooh!

It's the drainage pipe at the downstream end of the ditch.

It's been blocked, presumably by the beaver,

in an attempt to turn the ditch into a viable pond.

Mud.

Vegetation. Sticks.

He's hoping that unblocking the pipe will draw any beavers out,

revealing just how many there are.

Rocks.

A lot of rocks.

They were masons, these beavers. Stonemasons.

Beavers instinctively build dams,

and, like Pavlov's dogs,

the sound of running water seems to drive them into construction frenzy,

feeding a desperate urge to repair any leaks.

HE STRAINS

It's so packed in here, tight.

So clearing the pipe should bring the beavers out...

assuming Jeff can unblock it in the first place.

-HE STRAINS

-This is the one. This is the hulk!

Phew!

With the water flowing again, Jeff heads off to take position.

Oh!

SNUFFLING

Can you hear that?

So, we have the makings of a lodge right here. There's not much to it.

It might not look much, but at least one beaver is calling this home.

Right there.

See the beaver chewing that stick?

They've excavated under this bush,

and that's the extent of their lodge.

They have a lot of work here yet to do

to make this a fortress.

Oh! Wow, there you go.

As the beaver slips off downstream, Jeff follows it.

He's headed down towards the culvert.

Oh, very nice, very nice.

Sure enough,

the beaver is checking out the sudden disappearance of its dam.

But is there just the one?

HE IMITATES BEAVER CHEWING

I've read somewhere that if you want to attract a beaver,

try making the sound of the beaver chewing.

Right over!

'Boy, I've been trying that, and it really seems to work!'

These beavers seem to swim towards me and come and investigate,

check me out, see what I'm all about.

Neither the unblocked pipe nor Jeff's beaver-whispering antics

reveal a second beaver.

It looks as though there's just one to deal with.

That should make Drew's task simple.

But setting the traps is proving a problem.

God, it just keeps getting deeper and deeper!

If the trap slips into deeper water,

then any trapped beaver could potentially drown.

But the reality is Drew needs to catch this beaver.

Leaving it here would be tantamount to killing it anyway.

Finally!

Shallow enough, and there's a lot of good activity.

The trap is hot.

And the trap's hot.

Right, right, right there.

Drew's plan is working.

Right there!

But there's a problem.

A second beaver has appeared.

Just couldn't resist, could you?

That was pretty cool! HE LAUGHS

If a Mountie always gets his man,

then Drew is determined to get his beaver.

Let's see if we have the same kind of luck.

Not only will the first beaver's chances of survival

be improved by catching its mate,

but the second beaver will struggle to survive the winter

if left in the ditch.

But despite several nights' trapping...

Nothing there.

..it's a bust.

No way!

Damn.

The beaver has got away.

Nothing.

And with the first signs of winter already evident...

..Drew wastes no time in releasing the first beaver.

This late in the year, the beaver will need

every day it has in its new home

to find sufficient supplies for the winter.

Beavers spend much of the autumn building their food cache.

It's their most important job before winter,

and the whole family has to pull their weight.

These branches will be woven together to make a raft,

with the choicest items wedged underneath

for maximum accessibility.

The cold pond water will effectively act like a refrigerator,

ensuring the food remains edible throughout the winter.

Something is taking down willow on the edge of town.

But with the first snows,

it's now too late for Drew to relocate any problem beavers.

However, he still has enough on his plate.

He's put aside his sheriff's badge to play meals on wheels

for a pair of recently relocated beavers

that have yet to start on a food cache.

Well, winter's come, and the best thing we can do for those beavers

is to kinda help them out and give them materials myself.

The grocery store came to them, kind of thing.

It's estimated that beavers need up to four pounds of bark per day,

so these caches have to be pretty significant.

It might not be much,

but every branch increases the beavers' chances.

Being able to stay

either in their lodge or under the ice all winter long,

they're not risking getting out on the shoreline

and into the snow and stuff,

and, you know, potentially a predator coming along and whacking them.

It's a 1½ hour drive

to the spot where the relocated beavers have set up home.

And he still has a 15-minute hike to reach their lodge.

The things I do for these beavers!

It looks like the two beavers I put in have already gone to work

and have started a food cache.

And no harm, no foul, I can just supplement that for them

and, you know, give them a little bit better head start.

There you go. Feeding beavers!

It's not a moment too soon.

The big freeze has started.

In town, residents are hunkering down for the winter.

And so are the beavers.

They don't hibernate, but, encased in a world of snow and ice,

the beavers will spend most of the next six months

snuggled up inside their lodges.

Despite outside temperatures dropping to 40 degrees below,

inside the lodge it will hover just above freezing...

..ensuring the beavers can always slip out for a snack.

Drew is also shutting down operations.

With his equipment safely packed away, he can finally relax...

..until next spring...

..when the beavers will be back.