:50:02
I've not done too much
speakin' in public before.
:50:08
To tell the truth, I feel like
the snake that swallowed the icicle.
:50:17
Oh, look!
:50:27
Hello, you two.
You come to help me out?
:50:31
These little fellas
live with us.
:50:34
We call them the micks.
:50:36
The Ojibwa name for beaver is ahmik,
"little talking brother. "
:50:40
And they do talk too.
:50:43
Can you say "hi" to everyone?
:50:48
Beavers are family-minded,
you know.
:50:51
A beaver pair will stay together
for life, just like us... some of us.
:50:58
We're not planning on
holding on to these kittens too long.
:51:00
As soon as they've grown,
we'll let them go back into the wild,
:51:03
have some babies of their own.
:51:06
The fact is...
:51:09
I used to trap beaver.
:51:12
But a few weeks ago I quit.
Never thought I would.
:51:16
Now I know it's wrong.
They're almost extinct.
:51:19
Too many trappers,
not enough beaver.
:51:23
When the beaver have gone
from the north...
:51:27
Maybe you don't know, but these little
fellas make the north the way it is.
:51:32
They build their dams,
make their ponds...
:51:35
where the moose feed,
the muskrats, the waterfowl.
:51:38
Come the spring, they open up
their dams, let the meltwater run...
:51:40
and you've got an irrigation system
a thousand miles wide.
:51:44
Take away the beaver,
and you break the chain.
:51:48
So I'm speakin' up
for the beaver now.
:51:52
If we don't watch out,
:51:54
there'll just be
another extinct species.
:51:58
I guess I feel it
more than most because...