# The Idaho Government Once Forced Beavers to Skydive With WWII Parachutes **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 23, 2015, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-idaho-government-once-forced-beavers-to-skydive-with-wwii-parachutes/735523 "2015-10-23T10:57:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-idaho-government-once-forced-beavers-to-skydive-with-wwii-parachutes/735523/1 "2015-10-23T10:57:05Z")
> [@](#): > > “The Saga of the Skydiving Beavers” sounds like the title for a quirky children’s book, but it’s also a fitting epitaph for a strange, true story of an unconventional approach to habitat resettlement. In 1948, Idaho’s Fish and Game service decided the best way to keep beavers away from growing urban centers was to strap them into old surplus World War II parachutes and airdrop them in the backcountry. The weirdest part of this story? It worked. > **[The Idaho Government Once Forced Beavers to Skydive With WWII Parachutes](https://gizmodo.com/idaho-government-forced-beavers-to-skydive-with-world-w-1680632840)** > > "The Saga of the Skydiving Beavers" sounds like the title for a quirky children's book, but it's also a fitting epitaph for a strange, true story of an ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-idaho-government-once-forced-beavers-to-skydive-with-wwii-parachutes/735523/2 "2015-10-23T15:12:24Z")
Good thing I did a ‘find’ before starting a new thread. 😉 [This NPR article](http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/10/22/450958213/watch-long-lost-parachuting-beaver-footage-from-1950) has the full 14:14 minute film. It would have been cooler if the beavers were strapped into little harnesses instead of being in boxes. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-idaho-government-once-forced-beavers-to-skydive-with-wwii-parachutes/735523/3 "2015-10-23T15:29:41Z")
**What’s not to love about silky, boxed beavers dropping from the sky?** There was also a feature on this wildlife program on the TV show “Mysteries at the Museum”. They had a box that was used to drop the critters, and told the story around that. They seemed to indicate the program was somewhat successful. That show can be an awful lot of old bullshit sometimes, however. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-idaho-government-once-forced-beavers-to-skydive-with-wwii-parachutes/735523/4 "2015-10-23T15:33:44Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > **What’s not to love about silky, boxed beavers dropping from the sky?** Human sacrifice! Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria! _ **Beavers dropping from the sky!** _ :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-idaho-government-once-forced-beavers-to-skydive-with-wwii-parachutes/735523/5 "2015-10-23T15:51:37Z")
The Dam Builders, a story of daring and ingenuity on how the Idaho Fish and Game Department developed a novel technique of rodent bombardment, soon in a theater near you. ---
**Author:** ![stillownedbysetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@stillownedbysetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stillownedbysetters)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-idaho-government-once-forced-beavers-to-skydive-with-wwii-parachutes/735523/6 "2015-10-23T16:43:30Z")
Hellfire and Dam Nation! ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-idaho-government-once-forced-beavers-to-skydive-with-wwii-parachutes/735523/7 "2015-10-23T16:49:11Z")
The hardest part was teaching them to yell “Geronimo!” or “Currahee!” when they were pushed out of the plane. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-idaho-government-once-forced-beavers-to-skydive-with-wwii-parachutes/735523/8 "2015-10-23T19:37:08Z")
The glider-borne beavers suffered much higher casualties. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-idaho-government-once-forced-beavers-to-skydive-with-wwii-parachutes/735523/9 "2015-10-23T20:14:28Z")
Nice Beaver–Lt Frank Drebin ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2015, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-idaho-government-once-forced-beavers-to-skydive-with-wwii-parachutes/735523/10 "2015-10-24T06:26:46Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > The glider-borne beavers suffered much higher casualties. In hindsight, making the gliders out of wood was a bad idea. ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2015, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-idaho-government-once-forced-beavers-to-skydive-with-wwii-parachutes/735523/11 "2015-10-24T08:17:34Z")
As God is my witness, I thought beavers could fly. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2015, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-idaho-government-once-forced-beavers-to-skydive-with-wwii-parachutes/735523/12 "2015-10-24T14:20:41Z")
They aren’t fooling me. Those beavers are after my precious bodily fluids…which of course I will continue to steadfastly deny them.