
US film of parachuting beavers found after 65 years - rickdale
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/22/idaho-historic-footage-parachuting-beavers
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vessenes
I had a hard time understanding how and why you'd drop beavers from a plane
when a camera man could clearly get to the same spot, to, you know, make the
film.

Then I thought that the camera man could have parachuted in, too. But, then I
thought that either meant he then hiked out, in which case, why not hike in
with beavers, and save the plane time? Or, perhaps, the plane could land on a
lake, but in which case, why not land with beavers?

I may just be pre-caffeine, but I'm not sure I understand the point here.

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ChuckMcM
Or you film the landed beaver back where you started an a "scripted" event.
Bascially drop one in the original area where a camera is set up, let it film
the decent and the beaver getting out. Then you film dropping beavers from the
plane as they head down. The viewer can extrapolate that to the rest of the
boxes in the back country.

Most, if not all, of these films were informational but did not have the full
events filmed for technical reasons. Today of course you could just strap a
phone to the beaver box and have it broadcast live on YouTube or something,
which would have been pretty futuristic for the beavers.

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mseebach
It didn't even have to be "scripted", it could simply be a test drop to check
that the boxes open as expected and the beaver can survive the ordeal. Sounds
like a pretty sensible thing to do.

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albemuth
A stunned or half dead beaver woudln't have made the cut I think

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Htsthbjig
It is clear that they are testing the minimum height you can drop someone from
a parachute in the same way that the excuse of scientific knowledge of the
moon was used for recording Soviet Russia signals through moon reflection.

They don't show you the cuts under the minimum height, but in the video you
see a shoot of the chute almost not having enough time to open.

Dropping people at this height means time in the air is minimum and radar does
not detect the plane, but is incredibly dangerous.

~~~
ars
> It is clear that they are testing the minimum height you can drop someone
> from a parachute in the same way

Are you joking? You can do that much easier with a simple weight. You don't
need a beaver.

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bernardom
It's the beaver equivalent of alien abduction. "They took me up there! I
swear!"

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6stringmerc
Certainly does give them someting to chew on for the rest of their lives!

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verandaguy
If this was supposed to be a solution to a beaver overpopulation problem, I'm
really interested in how the government planned on scaling this to an
effective beaver volume -- since the video only shows two or three beavers
being dropped from a fairly small GA taildragger.

It'd also be interesting to know if this could have applications as a discreet
bioagent delivery vector (either as a weapon, or as something less
destructive).

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HarryHirsch
_Ad fontes!_

[http://www.jstor.org/stable/3796322?seq=1#page_scan_tab_cont...](http://www.jstor.org/stable/3796322?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents)

~~~
mavhc
[http://www.martinezbeavers.org/wordpress/wp-
content/uploads/...](http://www.martinezbeavers.org/wordpress/wp-
content/uploads/2012/05/airdrop-STUDY-beaver.pdf)

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TallGuyShort
Is anyone else disappointed to have not seen beavers with little backpacks,
helmets and goggles running out the back of a C-130?

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Splines
> _US film of parachuting beavers found after 65 years (it 's OK, they
> survived)_

Those are some old beavers.

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nathancahill
Ah, the ol' HN beaver-aroo.

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zellyn
YouTube video:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APLz2bTprMA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APLz2bTprMA)

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jackgavigan
Relevant section starts from ~7:00 and includes the magical words "..the
beaver DropBox."

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jerf
BRB; preparing YC application for the underserved market of North American
rodentia. (The market is _huge!_ And think of all the pivot opportunities....)

~~~
duskwuff
Log storage for everyone!

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martinni
I'm not sure I understand how the box is supposed to magically open once it
lands..

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JoeAltmaier
Suspended from parachute connected to cord holding the box shut. Once
parachute no longer pulling on cord (on ground), box easily can be pushed
open.

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ChrisArchitect
meanwhile in Canada, back to the drawing board for the US invasion plans

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TranquilMarmot
Something similar is done to control fish populations- often they will "air
stock" a waterbody by flying over it with a plane and dropping a bunch of fish
from hundreds of feet in the air. The fish (mostly) survive unharmed.

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Ecco
Imagine how those beavers must have showed off afterwards: "Dude, I'm a
paratrooper."

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jsprogrammer
>Now it has been digitized and released by the Idaho Historical Society and
the department of fish and game on YouTube.

But we will not link you to it. Because...this is a news _website_...

