One of Kelowna’s urban beavers is back splish-splashing after being rescued with an injured tail.
The beaver was captured from the Rotary Park Marsh on April 5, after a pedestrian noticed the sick-looking critter and contacted the Interior Wildlife Rehabilitation Society (IWRS).
The volunteers jumped into action and took the beaver to a vet to have the abscess drained. While waking up from the sedation, the beaver was given carrots and sweet potato, but she is now back on her regular diet of ‘browse’ such as twigs and other high-growing vegetation, said Eva Hartmann, founder of IWRS and registered veterinarian technician.
Everyday volunteers head out to the bush and pick twigs for the beaver to snack on.
Beavers munch on the tissue layer found just under the bark. Hartmann said the downtown girl in the IWRS’ care only likes to snack on poplar trees. The beaver spat out the Saskatoon berry bush and pine tree twigs that were collected for her. Hartmann laughed and said that she knew beavers preferred poplar and willow trees, but didn’t realize how picky they could be.
The Rotary Park resident has poor body condition and is quite thin, weighing only 16 kgs, which is between four and 10 kgs less than a healthy adult should weigh, explained Hartmann. She is now moving around more and will stay at IWRS until she is ready to be released back into the wild.
Over the weekend, the beaver was placed in an outdoor recovery pen, complete with a personal pool, at the Wildlife Rehabilitation centre in Summerland.
@Rangers_mom
Jacqueline.Gelineau@kelownacapnews.com
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