.
In a 1950s film from Idaho Department of Fish and Game, a narrator describes the scene: Beavers are loaded two at a time into drop boxes and loaded into a plane.
The boxes open and nature's engineers waddle away.
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"We believe it was successful," Keckler told The Washington Post. "But it was a unique approach to wildlife management to say the least."
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"The value of the North American beaver," the article said, "lies as much in his teeth and his temperament as in his fur."
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Cue the parachuting beavers.
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Boise State Public Radio reported that Heter came up with the concept. He designed a wooden box, complete with air holes, that would pop open when it hit the ground. He collected leftover parachutes from WWII. And soon Geronimo was airborne.
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According to Boise State Public Radio:
Heter dropped Geronimo on a landing field, over and over and over again. Each time, Geronimo popped out of the box, was caught by handlers, and put back inside for another ride. Once Heter was satisfied, it was time to put his plan into action. And Geronimo's reward for all his hard work was to be the first male beaver on a first class seat on a plane to the Chamberlain Basin.
Seventy-five more beavers followed Geronimo, Keckler confirmed.
Decades later, only the rumors remained. The video, it seemed, had been long lost -- mislabeled and misplaced, Keckler said.
Idaho Department of Fish and Game Historian Sharon Clark recently found it, with help from the Idaho Historical Society, according to Boise Public Radio. The Society had it digitized and it was made public earlier this week -- reigniting excitement over Idaho's parachuting beavers.
Apparently Idaho Department of Fish and Game still relocates beavers, but their days of extreme adventure are behind them.
"Yes, we still do some trapping and relocating of beavers," Steve Nadeau, with the department, told Boise Public Radio. "We haven't done airplane drops for 50 plus years, but it apparently worked pretty well back then to reestablish them in remote places."
"We also have beaver problems," he added, "so we're trapping them from where they're causing problems and taking them where we want them to go."
© 2015 The Washington Post
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