Viral coyote vs. beaver clip

A Connecticut trail camera recorded a coyote struggling to bring down a large beaver, and the clip spread widely online after wildlife researcher Thomas Gable reposted it. (youtube.com) The YouTube post describing the footage says the encounter was filmed in Connecticut, and Gable called it “exceptional footage” of a coyote attacking a beaver. The circulating social post linked back to that same video. (youtube.com) State wildlife officials say eastern coyotes are now common across Connecticut after first being documented there in the 1950s. The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection says coyotes use wooded suburbs, parks, beach fronts and office parks, and eat mice, rabbits, deer, carrion and garbage when available. (ct.gov) Beavers are also back in force in the state after being wiped out by the mid-1800s and reintroduced starting in 1914. Connecticut’s beaver population was well established by 1961, when the state began a regulated trapping season to deal with growing damage complaints. (ct.gov) The beaver in the clip looks unusually formidable because adult beavers are big animals. Connecticut says adults typically weigh 30 to 65 pounds, making them the largest rodent in North America and a difficult target even for a predator as adaptable as a coyote. (ct.gov) Connecticut’s wildlife agency says coyotes, bobcats, otters and mink may prey on beaver kits and only occasionally on adult beavers. The agency adds that natural predation does little to reduce the state’s overall beaver population. (ct.gov) Researchers in the state are now tracking where beavers are expanding because they occupy roughly 5,800 miles of Connecticut waterways and can reshape wetlands quickly. A March 2025 University of Connecticut report said the new mapping project was built with drones, satellite imagery and historical data through a collaboration with Connecticut Environmental Conditions Online. (uconn.edu) The clip also landed as Connecticut residents were already paying close attention to coyotes after several recent incidents involving people. In July 2025, a 13-year-old in Watertown was bitten in a front yard, and in January 2026 state officials confirmed a separate bite case in Ridgefield. (fox61.com) (yahoo.com) State officials still describe attacks on people as rare and say the bigger pattern is coexistence with two recovered species sharing the same landscape. The viral clip turned that long-running Connecticut wildlife story into a few seconds of blunt, muddy trail-cam evidence. (ct.gov)