SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Keep watching the skies, and don't get hit by a flying beaver. Boise State Radio reports that the Idaho Department of Fish and Game has found film of an effort to relocate beavers in the 1950s from areas where, I guess they were chewing too many trees. The crackling color film shows beavers being packed by conservation officers into wooden boxes that are poked with holes, loaded onto a plane, then dropped by tiny little parachutes into an area that looks sparkling green and gleams with fresh water. The Department of Fish and Game says no beavers were hurt in the parachute drops. The film shows one beaver who crawls from his box, shakes his head, looks relieved to have landed and waddles away. And the wooden boxes look more roomy than today's airline coach seats. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.