BOSTON– The question of whether a 2-year-old beaver named Nibi can stay with the rescuers she has known since she was a baby or should be released into the wild was resolved Thursday when the governor of Massachusetts stepped in to protect Nibi.
The state issued a permit to Newhouse Wildlife Rescue so Nibi could stay in the rehabilitation center and serve as an educational animal.
“Nibi has captured the hearts of many of our residents, including mine,” Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey said Thursday. “We are pleased to announce that we have issued a permit allowing Nibi to remain in Newhouse’s care, continuing to educate the public about this important species.”
Nibi’s plight had been before the state courts before Healey intervened.
A judge ruled Tuesday that Nibi would be allowed to stay in her home at the Chelmsford rescue center, located northwest of Boston. A hearing had been set for Friday in a lawsuit rescuers filed against MassWildlife, the state’s Division of Fish and Wildlife, to prevent the release.
Nibi’s rescuers at Newhouse Wildlife Rescue said on their Facebook page that they were “beyond grateful” for Healey’s decision.
Nibi has been a hit on the rescue group’s social media channels since she was a baby, and posts about her impending release have attracted thousands of comments.
An online petition to stop Nibi from being released into the wild has received more than 25,000 signatures, lawmakers have spoken out, and earlier this week Healey pledged to ensure Nibi is protected.
“We all care about what is best for the beaver known as Nibi and all of our state’s wildlife,” Mark Tisa, director of MassWildlife, said in a statement Thursday. “We share the public’s passion for wildlife and invite everyone to learn more about beavers and their important place in our environment.
Jane Newhouse, founder and president of the rescue group, said that after Nibi was found on the side of the road, they tried to reunite her with nearby beavers who could have been her parents, but were unsuccessful. After that, attempts to get him to bond with other beavers didn’t work either.
“It’s very difficult to consider releasing her when she only seems to like people and seems to have no interest in being wild or bonding with members of her own species,” she said.
Nibi has a large enclosure with a swimming pool during the rescue operation and will also roam around his yard and rehabilitation area, Newhouse said. “She pretty much runs the place. Everyone on my team is in love with her,” she said.
Newhouse said she asked MassWildlife if she could get a permit for Nibi to become an educational beaver, allowing her to take the beaver to schools, libraries and town halls. Newhouse said she feared a release would mean certain death for her beloved “diva,” the beaver, who doesn’t know how to live in the wild.
“That doesn’t give him a lot of time… to figure out how to build a lodge for the first time, how to build dams for the first time, how to store all of his food before winter comes,” he said. -she declared.
Newhouse said beavers typically leave their parents between the ages of 2 and 3. So it is possible that over the next year Nibi will show more interest in wanting to be in nature. But unless that happens, she wants to keep herself safe.
Beavers are common and abundant throughout Massachusetts. A keystone species, the beaver plays an important role in promoting ecosystem biodiversity, according to state officials.
By building dams on rivers and streams and forming shallow ponds, beavers play a vital role in creating healthy wetlands that support an immense diversity of plants, insects and wildlife, and store floodwaters during storms.
They are also the largest rodents native to North America, weighing between 35 and 80 pounds (16 and 36 kilograms) and reaching 2 to 3 feet (0.6 to 0.9 meters) in length as adults.
Adult beavers have very few predators and can live 20 years or more.
In almost all cases, it’s best to leave wildlife alone, officials said, so they don’t rely on humans for food and shelter.
