Parachuting beavers featured in ‘Fur For the Future,’ 1950s-era film
In 1948, game warden and pilot Elmo Heter executed a plan years in the making to reintroduce beavers into the mountainous wilds of Idaho. His plan sounded simple, Idaho Fish & Wildlife professionals would work with skilled trappers to catch nuisance beavers from abundant areas adjacent to mankind, pack them into wooden crates, load them onto an airplane and, whilst tethered to a parachute, drop the sub-aquatic rodents into portions of the wilderness for reintroduction efforts. The crates would burst open on impact, freeing the furry engineers encased inside to roam the wilds of their new abode. "
In all, 76 beavers would complete the trip, with only one documented beaver fatality from the drop, which was due to a lashing failure allowing the beaver to exit the box in mid-air.