Regina's urban beavers

Tonight, in honour of the year's highest temperatures to date, Jeannette and I went on an evening stroll along the banks of the Wascana Creek.  Just as we were passing a dog walking pair with three dogs and four leashes I noticed a mammal swimming in the creek.  Because of the dog walkers' extra leash I initially assumed that the animal swimming in the creek was a fourth dog - though the swimming appeared awfully smooth for a dog.

As this pair and their three dogs kept walking along the creek without the mystery animal I soon began to suspect that we were looking at some sort of wild animal.  As the head appeared to be about dog size I was relatively certain we weren't looking at a water-based rat.

When the animal climbed onto the shore from the creek and I got a look at its rotund body I began to feel relatively certain that it was a beaver.  Of course, in the mean time Jeannette had spotted a second beaver on some ice and could clearly see the second animal's tail want was able to positively identify it as a beaver.

Anyway, much to Jeannette's chagrin we stood by the banks of the soon to be flood engorged banks of the Wascana creek and watched a pair of beavers gnaw on a branch.

Definitely pretty cool.  Or at least I thought so.

Before Jeannette pulled me away from the raw display of beavericity I did manage to snag about 30 seconds of video of the two majestic beasts.


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I can't wait to go back tomorrow night.

And how did I not know about this already?