During a torrential rainstorm in April, Stormy Rose was washed through Biloxi’s
storm drainage. Eventually, she wandered under the shining lights of the Beau Rivage. A casino employee spotted her red fur coat and wide, dark tail and called Woodside Wildlife Rescue.
Soon after, Stormy arrived at the home of Holley Muraco, a marine mammal scientist and research professor at Mississippi State University. The beaver was in bad shape
– her spine rose out of her fur in a sign of malnutrition.
“There was nothing specifically wrong with her that I could find from a veterinary perspective, but by studying her over time, I realized she actually had this incredibly
rare, weird, protozoa parasite that she should not have had,” Muraco said. “… She got this parasite, because it’s in our environment, and most likely, was spread
through wild hogs.”

Muraco’s research takes a “One Health” approach, a relatively new scientific perspective that recognizes that the health of humans and animals is connected
through our shared environment. Once Muraco confirms the presence of the parasite, she will publish papers asserting that beavers could be “sentinels” for human health. Essentially, if beavers are sick, it could act as a warning for similar diseases in people.
“The way I see it, they’re just getting what’s in the environment, same as a human would. So, they could be good sentinels for human health and help us understand
the health of the environment,” Muraco said. Muraco emphasized that her research does not imply that beavers are vectoring disease to humans.
Stormy has since become one element of Muraco’s research on Mississippi beavers, which shows promise with the construction of a new beaver sanctuary right in the backyard of her new home in Kiln.

Across the past few months, Muraco has constructed a special needs enclosure for young and recovering beavers, complete with personal pools. When they are mature and strong enough, future beavers will be released into a fenced, three-acre area, where Muraco can encourage the development of healthy, wild behaviors. Muraco
said beaver rehabilitation takes about two years.
Once fully recovered, they will be released into Muraco’s larger 30-acre property, complete with a large pond, wetland and creek, where Muraco can observe and
better understand the behavior and population dynamics of beavers and their
impact on the environment.
“While I have them in my care, I’m learning about growth and development. I’m
learning about diseases, parasites, and then once we are ready to release, and I’m
going to look at how they change the environment, and then behavior. There’s a lot we still don’t know about behavior,” Muraco said. “I’ve been recording her vocalizations; they vocalize underwater too.” Muraco said that Gulf Coast beavers are seemingly unique from beavers found
elsewhere in North America. They are typically smaller and have been observed in
saltwater environments, which is uncommon for beavers. Muraco said Stormy is a particularly unique beaver.

“Her coat is super short; she has red fur – she just has a very different appearance
than the northern beavers. I’m going to do some DNA testing and see if we actually have a genetic subspecies on our hands on the Coast,” Muraco said. “No one has ever
really looked at Coastal beavers. It’s low-hanging fruit; we’re gonna have so many
cool opportunities.” Muraco’s new nonprofit, Something Wild, traces back to Paula Woodside and her nonprofit Woodside Wildlife Rescue. Woodside is a close friend of Muraco and
introduced her to beaver rehabilitation in 2022. Since then, the two and their nonprofit organizations have been close collaborators.
Stormy the beaver is rescued from outside the Beau Rivage Resort and Casino where she was
found. Provided by Holley Muraco

Holley Muraco, a marine mammal scientist and research professor at Mississippi State University, feeds sweet potato slices to a beaver named Tulip, who is being rehabilitated at Muraco’s property on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. Tulip currently spends time between two different enclosures: her old
enclosure and a newer, larger one with a pool. Hannah Ruhoff Sun Herald

Tulip’s current enclosure on Muraco’s property in Kiln on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. Muraco is in the process of moving Tulip to another enclosure near the barn where Stormy, another beaver, resides. Hannah Ruhoff Sun Herald
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Woodside said the greatest challenge in rehabilitating beavers is a lack of public knowledge.
“They have a purpose. They cut down on the risk of wildfires running through
because of the wetlands that they develop into ponds,” Woodside said. “They’re a keystone species. They go in and lay the groundwork where other species could
come in and thrive because they’ve got the water. How can that be a nuisance
species?”

‘A DIVISIVE ANIMAL’ Beavers were almost hunted to extinction in North America for the fur trade, but
their populations have seen a strong resurgence in the last century. In Mississippi, beavers are classified as a nuisance species due to the damage they cause to
infrastructure such as roads, bridges, and drainage systems, as well as timber and
agriculture. Nuisance species on private property can be hunted at any time of year, with no restriction on hunting equipment.
According to the MSU Extension Service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture
estimates that beavers annually cause about $100 million in damage to public and
private property across the Southeast. Michael Niemeyer of Wildlife Solutions, Inc. has worked as a trapper in southern Alabama and Mississippi for 16 years. He works with beavers almost daily and said most conflicts he sees with beavers surround roads, where beavers clog drainage
systems, or at levees, where beavers burrow holes to drain lakes and ponds. He sees more beaver activity today than he did 16 years ago. Niemeyer said relocating live beavers is usually impossible. It is illegal to relocate beavers onto public land in Mississippi without permission, and few private
landowners would willingly allow the relocation of a nuisance species onto their property. He said that, even if beavers were relocated to an area where beavers are already established, the resulting battle for territory would likely mean death for
relocated beavers.

“I think the basic logic there is that: if you’ve got a beaver plugging up drains or causing property damage here, if to take it somewhere else, you got to worry that beavers are going to continue doing what beavers do,” Niemeyer said. “And it’s a sad
thing because it’s pretty cool what beavers do when you sit back and look at it. They
create habitat for other species and besides humans, they’re one of the only animals on the world that build their surroundings to their liking.” Neimeyer said that, in his experience, nonlethal mitigation efforts to control beaver damage are expensive and ineffective in the long term. He said that almost all
landowners choose lethal mitigation methods and that if they continue to be
significantly less expensive and more effective than non-lethal methods, Mississippi
landowners are unlikely to change practices.
“In my career, what I’ve noticed is everybody likes beavers until they have them on
their property,” Niemeyer said. “Because when you’re thinking about a beaver doing beaver things on a national park, what’s there to mind about it? … and suddenly, five acres turns into two, and it’s flooded and it’s useless and all the trees start dying because they’re underwater and they can’t grow out of water. That’s when you see a
change.”

Neimeyer said that, although they work differently, animal control companies and wildlife rehabilitation organizations have a similar goal of responsibly managing wildlife. In the coming months, Neimeyer will relocate orphaned young beavers, called kits, to Muraco’s sanctuary.
Muraco, a Mississippi native, said she grew up hunting and fishing and understands
the balance that must be struck within wildlife management in Mississippi.
“And that’s where my approach with the beavers is; I just want to try to understand. I want to understand, once I start releasing these animals into my environment, exactly what is the carrying capacity of our property, and if beavers are going to
exceed that carrying capacity. For example, I think people believe if you see one beaver, you’re going to have 500 beavers, but they’re not like rats or rodents. They only have the number that fits the environment that they’re in, and I want to show
that. I’m going to show it with statistics and studies and say, ‘Alright, I have a breeding population of beavers in this pond, they’re only maintaining this number and they’re not going beyond what their resources are,’ Muraco said.

“By sharing that kind of information and saying, ‘This is the so-called damage is that
they’re doing to my property. They’re cutting down this type of tree. Mostly they’re burrowing into the levee at this point, they have expanded the water by this amount,’” Muraco continued. Muraco only has two beavers currently, Stormy and Tulip, but believes her current rehabilitation facility can house 10 recovering beavers. Muraco hopes to use her
sanctuary to test non-lethal beaver mitigation techniques and to better understand how beavers affect water quality and biodiversity.
“By just using science, I’m hoping that then I can share that with our state and with
our regulators and say, ‘Let’s put a little bit of effort into non-lethal mitigation
techniques for landowners who would like to keep beavers around,’ instead of just having them labeled: kill them on sight. Maybe, just maybe, we can give them a
chance – once we know a little bit more information,” Muraco said.
A beaver named Stormy wakes up in her enclosure at Muraco’s property on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. Stormy was rescued from an area near the Beau Rivage and Muraco is caring for her as she
recovers from a parasite. Hannah Ruhoff Sun Herald

Holley Muraco, a marine mammal scientist and research professor at Mississippi State University, walks with Tulip back to her enclosure after Tulip swam in her pool at Muraco’s property in Kiln on
Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. Hannah Ruhoff Sun Herald

Tulip, one of the beavers being rehabilitated at Muraco’s property, walks from her pen to her pool on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. Hannah Ruhoff Sun Herald

Holley Muraco, a marine mammal scientist and research professor at Mississippi State University, holds Tulip, one of the beavers being rehabilitated at Muraco’s property on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. Muraco is starting a nonprofit, Something Wild, to support beaver rehabilitation. Hannah Ruhoff Sun Herald

Part of the McClatchy Media Network
Muraco has seen much success in community outreach through her YouTube
channel, where videos documenting her efforts have reached millions of views. Muraco’s nonprofit, Something Wild, is currently sourcing funds for new
development at the sanctuary, which provides care to other wildlife species
including raccoons and parrots. Muraco said that in other states, beavers are not classified as a nuisance species and
are being reintroduced into certain environments. She has a dream of releasing Mississippi beavers to aid in conservation efforts around the nation.
“All of these places out West that are trying to get beavers, if we could one day, in a
really beautiful world, live trap and ship them out West and let them go live out
there where they’re trying to get them. We have a plethora of them, they don’t have
enough. So, maybe,” Muraco said.

This story was originally published August 21, 2024, 5:00 AM. AM Newsletter
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SAMUEL HUGHES
SUN HERALD
Holley Muraco gives Tulip, one of the beavers being rehabilitated at Muraco’s property, a kiss on
Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. Muraco has been caring for Tulip for almost two years — since Tulip was a kit — as Tulip recovers from pneumonia and a skin infection. Hannah Ruhoff Sun Herald

A large pond on Muraco’s 30-acre property in Kiln on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024, where the beavers will eventually be released once they are fully recovered. Muraco will observe their impact on the
environment and behavior. Hannah Ruhoff Sun Herald

A beaver sign in Holley Muraco’s home in Kiln on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. Muraco is currently
rehabilitating two beavers on the property. Hannah Ruhoff Sun Herald