A rescued baby beaver joins wildlife at Bend’s High Desert Museum

A baby beaver rescued from a John Day parking lot in May has joined the High Desert Museum in Bend.

The museum has wildlife staff who care for rescued Pacific Northwest animals that can’t be released back into the wild – due to injuries or other issues that would make their reintroduction unsafe.

The museum “cares for more than 120 animals, from otters to raptors,” according to a press release.

Baby beavers are referred to as ‘kits.’

The new baby beaver was found in a parking lot at just a few weeks old. She was “very weak and dehydrated, weighing just 1.4 pounds,” the press release says. “Wildlife staff spent the next several months working to formulate an appropriate diet and nurse the kit back to health.”

After attempts to find the beaver’s family were unsuccessful, she was sent to be cared for at the High Desert Museum. Now healthy, she’ll “become an ambassador for her species by appearing in talks at the Museum that educate visitors about the High Desert landscape.”

The beaver doesn’t have a name yet. The chance to name her was auctioned off by the museum as a fundraiser, but the name has not yet been chosen.

Learn more at highdesertmuseum.org.