Wild Animal Rescue on Roosevelt Island - Beaver Update, Unhappy Ending

Groundhog Image from ozoni11

An earlier post reporting on a loose beaver roaming around the Motorgate Garage led fellow blogger Roosevelt Island 360 to speculate that:

I wonder if the beaver found by the NYPD while patrolling the East River in prep for the Pope’s visit to the UN was the same animal? We don’t get too many beaver sightings around here so perhaps it was the same animal. Either way we are sorry to hear of the beaver’s passing.

It turns out that what some thought was a beaver wandering Motorgate turned out to be a sick ground hog. According to the March 30-31 Public Safety Report:

Wild Animal Rescue- Adj 684 Main Street a ground hog was taken to R.I. Resident after ASPCA and Animal Care and control could not pick it up. The resident is licensed through NYS for Wild Life rehabilitation.

I asked Public Safety Director Keith Guerra about the Roosevelt Island "Wild Animal Rescue" and if there were any other wild animals in the apartment of the tenant with the Wild Life rehabilitation license, recalling an incident several years ago where a tiger was being kept in a Manhattan apartment. Mr. Guerra responded:

It was a sick ground hog that was reported stumbling around. It actually died, from what one of my officers told me. To my knowledge, the tenant with the Wild life rehabilitation license does not have wild animals in her apartment.

For an incredible view of a life and death wild life battle between lions, buffaloes and a crocodile take a look at the Battle at Kruger in South Africa. The video is a bit longer than eight minutes but well worth it.

You Tube video of Battle at Kruger

In other East River wild animal news, earlier this spring a harbor seal was found lounging on the rocks in Red Hook. Not known if it made its way to Roosevelt Island.

You Tube video of Red Hook Harbor Seal