Orphaned beaver kits learn to swim at Salthaven wildlife centre

Four orphaned beaver kits are testing out their growing strength as they learnto swim, weeks afterthey arrived at Salthaven Wildlife Rehabilitation West as cold and weak newborns.

• Weak, orphaned beaver kits getting stronger at Regina wildlife centre
• Saskatchewan wildlife rescue begins long road to rehab for 3 foxes

The Regina-basedwildlife centre recently shared a video showing one of the kits tentatively sliding into a wading pool thendiving under the surface, taking tothe water like a natural.

"The kits sure are getting the hang of this swimming thing," the centre wrote in a post on social media.

The young beaversarrived at Salthaven in early Mayafter trappers found them next to their mother, which they caught in a trapnear Fort Qu'Apelle.

"They had trapped a female beaver,and in the trap next to her there was four newborn beaver kits," said Salthavendirector of rehabilitation Megan Lawrence, addingthatthe hunters felt bad about the orphaned kitsand knew they needed help to survive.

"So they broughtthemto us right away and we've been caring for them ever since."

Lawrence said the kits were cold, weak and hungry when they arrived at Salthaven, so they were initially kept in an incubator and fed a special formula about eight times a day.

The young beaversdoubled in size during their first two weeks at the centre, becoming moresocial and chatty as they grew.

The next step in their feeding regime was to introduce solid foods, including sticks,becausethe animals can eat and digest the inner bark on some trees.

When the kits were two weeks old,Salthaven workers were slowly trying to introduce themto water, providing a paddling pool to try out their natural swimming instincts.

Eventually, the four siblings will be transferred to another, larger facility outside of Regina where they can get better at using the skills they'llneed to survive and thrivein the wild.

Lawrence says it's not correct to turn in every orphaned animal, butin this case she says it was good that the trappers recognized the kits needed helpandcould improve underSalthaven'scare.

"Especially if they know it's orphaned in this case we knew mom had passed away then definitely call a wildliferehabilitatorfor help, and don't try to raise them yourself."