ChewBarka: The Beaver That Became A Worldwide Sensation For Flipping People Off

ChewBarka is a burly old beaver who lives quietly with his family in Canada, but he’s become a worldwide social media star.

That’s thanks in part to quirk in his front claws that made it look like he was flipping people off, but now appears as if he’s flashing a peace sign.

Social Media Stars

The beaver family lives along the South Saskatchewan River, near the heart of downtown Saskatoon in Saskatchewan, Canada.

In 2020, local resident Mike Digout starting taking photos and videos of ChewBarka and his family and posting them on his Facebook page.

ChewBarka’s fame grew, and has exploded into a global phenomenon, Digout told Cowboy State Daily during a telephone interview.

The page has followers from Canada, all 50 U.S. states and 75 countries, he said. It has 170,000 followers and gets up to 30,000 views a day.

“I recently got a comment from a follower in the Philippines, saying, ‘We don’t have beavers here, but we love these animals,’” Digout said.

A Walk To The Riverside

Digout said that whole thing got started during the 2020 COVID pandemic lockdowns.

Feeling cooped up one day, he decided to take a walk along the city’s riverside trail system.

“I saw a beaver and took some photos, then posted them,” he said.

After a big positive reaction, he decided to keep visiting the beavers and posting images of them, along with small anecdotes about their daily lives.

Beavers are “quasi-nocturnal,” and the Saskatoon beaver family were most visible about two hours before sunset, Digout said.

Beavers are generally cautious around people, Digout said.

“If you try to walk up to beavers in one of the state parks, they’re going to slap their water with their tails and swim away,” he said.

However, the beavers near downtown Saskatoon are approachable, because they’re acclimated to the constant presence of humans, and the noise of city life.

“This family of beavers lives right along the riverside trail system. So most evenings I can find them and get close to them,” Digout said.

It wasn’t long before the beavers had captured his heart, and he looked forward to the evening visits and photo sessions.

“As my audience grew, not only was I getting out to enjoy watching them, I was needing to get more content to share,” he said.

“They really are quite cute, comical creatures. They’re quite adorable to watch, I think that helps” draw people in, he said.

Dubbed ‘ChewBarka’

After watching the beavers for a while, Digout and some friends determined it included a huge, older male, “the patriarch,” his mate and their young, called kits.

One day, a friend suggested the moniker “ChewBarka” for the patriarch.

Digout agreed, it was the perfect name.

“It’s a great pun. He’s brown and furry, like Chewbacca from ‘Star Wars,’ and he eats bark,” he said.

ChewBarka is thought to be about 11 or 12 years old, or a “senior citizen” in beaver terms, Digout said.

“I think he’s getting to be quite an old beaver. I know when I started following him in 2020, he was clearly the largest of the beavers in the area,” he said.

From Flipping The Bird To Peace Sign

Probably due to his age, some of the claws on ChewBarka’s front paws have become permanently extended.

“I think it has to do with the aging tendons in his claws,” Digout said.

It started with one on his right front paw.

“If he was standing in a certain position with his paw in the air, it looked like he was flipping you off,” Digout said.

The social media audience thought that was hysterical, he added.

Eventually, a second claw extended.

That toned down ChewBarka’s act. Now it looks as if he’s flashing a peace sign, and not flipping the bird at downtown Saskatoon.

Has ChewBarka Found Love Again?

Beavers typically mate for life, and their kits strike out on their own at about age two.

A couple of years back, there were no new kits, and a sad truth was revealed, ChewBarka had lost his mate.

However, there’s reason to hope that ChewBarka has found love again.

There are three other beavers living with him in the family lodge, and one appears to be significantly larger than the others, Digout said.

It’s difficult to tell which sex beavers are just by looking at them “because all of their stuff is hidden,” Digout said.

“This year, it looks like he has a new mate. There’s another large beaver hanging out with him a lot. I’m hoping it’s a new mate,” he said.

“I can’t say for sure whether the other adult-sized beaver is a mate, or one of the older offspring that just stuck around,” he said.

Even so, “I’m really hoping for new kits in the spring,” he added.

Making The World A Better Place

In most places, beavers essentially disappear for the winter. The water around them freezes up, and they hole away in their dome-shaped lodges.

“They collect a cache of food near the lodge, so they have food to make it through the winter,” Digout said.

However, hot water from the Saskatoon power plant keeps a section of the river that flows through the city open year-round.

Though ChewBarka and his family aren’t as highly visible during the winter as they are during the warmer months, they still venture out occasionally, Digout said.

He’s thankful for that, because even in the dead of winter, he gets opportunities to see the beavers and share fresh content with his audience.

Digout said that the beavers have brought tranquility and joy to his life.

“It’s been proven that getting outside and observing wildlife lowers stress levels,” he said.

He hopes that his page helps spread some of that goodness, particularly to people who can’t get outside much, because of old age or disabilities.

As he sees it, following the lives of ChewBarka and his busy family on Facebook is a welcome respite for folks all over the world.

“It’s kind of nice, peaceful escape from all of the negative crap on the Internet,” he said.

Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.