Photo: Steven Mark Salowsky
CHELMSFORD, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — A sick beaver found stranded in Billerica is now in recovery after being rescued by two local wildlife experts.
Jane Newhouse and Steven Salowsky with Newhouse Wildlife Rescue in Chelmsford were teaching police how to properly respond to wildlife that needs to be rescued, when they coincidentally received a call to help rescue a beaver.
“We got the phone call in the middle of our pow-wow and then I was just like, ‘Hey Jane we need to handle this’,” said Salowsky.
The call came after Billerica residents noticed the beaver had been stuck on top of a rock in front of a rapidly flowing waterfall for two days.
Newhouse said she was shocked at the timing of the call and said it couldn’t have come at a more perfect time.
“I was like, ‘is this really happening on this particular day where all these people came together’. It was incredible, so I think I learned just as much as everybody else did that day,” she said.
The duo sprang into action and worked alongside the Billerica Fire Department, who placed a ladder bridge over the flowing water, and sent a fireman across the rapids who caught the beaver with a net.
Video footage from the Newhouse Wildlife team shows the fireman making the daring rescue over the rapids, which Newhouse says was tense to watch.
“[Beavers are] very heavy; they’re like 35, 40 pounds and they’re thrashing, so he’s trying to go over rapids, over a ladder with this beaver that’s thrashing and moving in a net,” she said.
The rescue came just in time as Newhouse said that if they hadn’t helped the animal when they did it would have likely only lasted one more day on the rock.
The beaver is currently recovering from several wounds and an infection at Newhouse Wildlife Rescue and is expected to be returned to the wild in the next few weeks.
WBZ NewsRadio’s Kyle Bray (@KyleBrayWBZ) reports.