Nibi the beaver’s future reached the courts. Then the Massachusetts governor stepped in.

This is a story about wildlife, about bureaucracy, about politics, about the internet.

But, ultimately, it is a story about a beaver.

It started two years ago when a baby beaver, just a few days old and weighing 1 pound, was found alongside a busy road in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, a town 20 miles east of Springfield.

There were “no parents in sight,” said Jane Newhouse, the president and founder of Newhouse Wildlife Rescue in Chelmsford, near Boston. And that was a problem.

“A baby beaver as small as she was is not supposed to be out of the lodge,” she said, referring to the structures of sticks and mud in which beavers live. “The only entrance to a beaver dam is through the water, and when they are little, they can’t even dive.”

As with most wildlife rescues, the goal was to eventually release the beaver back into the wild, which is where rehabilitators believe they belong. But with this beaver, that goal proved difficult. Efforts to find her parents, including placing her at the edge of the nearby pond and letting her cry, were unsuccessful.

“The dens are in the middle of ponds,” Newhouse said. “It’s very difficult with beavers in general.”

The beaver was dubbed Nibi, an Ojibwe word for “water,” and brought back to the wildlife rescue. The new plan was to release her when she was old enough to survive on her own — but that would not be any time soon. Baby beavers require the longest rehab of any North American animal, Newhouse said, because they are typically with their parents for two years.

Staff members at the rescue tried pairing her with other beavers of the same age. But she only showed “aggression” with the other beavers, Newhouse said. “She only wanted to be with her people. She appeared to be too habituated.”

Staff members at the rescue began to describe her as a “diva.” She seemed to resent any other beaver at the center. She refused to eat if she was introduced to other beavers, even her favorite food, pistachios.

By April of this year, the staff had decided that releasing Nibi wasn’t an option. “In six years, it was the first healthy animal we felt wasn’t releasable, and we’ve rehabbed thousands,” Newhouse said.

But in September, Newhouse said, the government agency Mass Wildlife contacted her, insisting the beaver must be released.

At that point, social media went to work. In 2022, the center had posted a video of Nibi to Facebook. As the caption with the video explained, Nibi had failed to bond with another baby beaver, who had just been removed from the room. Nibi sprang into action, grabbing sticks and building a makeshift dam at the door, as if to prevent the other baby’s return. Nibi made a few irresistible hops as she ran, ramping up the cute factor even more.

The video drew more than 10 million views. And when Nibi’s fans heard of the threat to release her, they created an e-uproar, and circulated a petition to let her stay at the rescue center.

But this week brought upsetting news: a letter from Mass Wildlife, suggesting that officials would come Tuesday to take Nibi. The rescue center filed an emergency injunction, and a court hearing was set for Friday.

At this point, Gov. Maura Healey of Massachusetts entered the story. At a news conference Tuesday, she addressed her state’s most famous beaver: “There was talk about releasing Nibi into the wild, and I heard about that and said, ‘No, we’re going to pause on that and evaluate what’s best for Nibi.’”

On Thursday, she announced that Nibi could stay at the rescue facility as an “educational beaver.”

“Nibi has captured the hearts of many of our residents, mine included,” the governor said in a statement.

“We all care about what is best for the beaver known as Nibi and all wild animals throughout our state,” Mark Tisa, director of Mass Wildlife, said in the statement. “We share the public’s passion for wildlife and invite everyone to learn more about beavers and their important place in our environment.”

Newhouse said: “I’m blown away by the amount of people who cried out for Nibi, who cried out have this rectified, and the amount of empathy that people had.”

So, with her legal problems at last resolved, what’s next for Nibi? A new role as an educator.

“I’d like to start with smaller groups then see if she tolerates larger groups,” Newhouse said. “You can’t just Google, ‘How do you work with a beaver?’”

“I’d like to take her to towns that are having problems with beavers and considering euthanizing beavers,” she said.

“She can help the world fall in love with beavers. She already has.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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