Circus artist  Viktor Siltšenko says that a beaver can be persuaded only with hugs! See the TV interview made in 2018 on Youtube where the beaver is in an interview live from the studio with artist Viktor Siltšenko.

Posted by the Team of the Animal of the Year
Estonian text published 30.12.2019 

Two weeks ago  we wrote about the young orphan beaver who was raised by people in a distant Russian village ln Ural in 2011 and we wondered  what had become of  it later and whether any of the readers had any new information about the beaver. In response to the appeal Tatjana wrote to Looduskalender. She had found an article from 2014 on the website of the Live journal in 2014 where journalist Jelena Pomortseva wrote:

After the film on Internet from the village of Nižnii Tavolg about the young beaver Semjon the news spread on all Russian TV channels and after that a businessman wanted the young beaver for himself, but Tatjana Zavarohhina, the foster mother of Semjon, did not want to give the little beaver to him. Time passed. Every now and then we remembered Semjon. But about his further fate we did not manage to find out anything. But once operator  Jevgeni Lapidus, who had also  filmed the original episode saw on coming to work a beaver on-line  in the TV  “4 Kanal“. Trainer Viktor Siltšenko had brought the beaver to the show ”Morning express”. He talked to the viewers about his new circus performance that was to start to be shown in Yekaterinburg and introduced his new artist – our beaver Semjon.

We then visited the circus and were told how the beaver from beyond Ural  got to the circus arena. It turned out that  Viktor Siltšenko saw the story about the beaver on Internet, travelled to the place and persuaded the pensioners to give the beaver to the circus as an artist.

At first  we felt sorry for the beaver. A circus is after all not the best place for a wild animal. But on getting acquainted with  Viktor Siltšenko we felt reassured. Viktor is the only trainer in the world who works with beavers. He studies the behaviour of beavers, participates in the work of research teams and is writing a book about beavers. He has more than ten beavers. According to him you cannot force these animals to do things, it is useless. They only follow orders reluctantly.

But according to Viktor, Semjon would not have survived among the pensioners, beavers don’t stand captivity well. It was not possible to return Semjon to nature. Other beavers would no longer have accepted him. Neither had he learnt to build dams in time. It turns out that the circus was an escape road for the beaver from beyond Ural. And by the way, it turned out that beaver Semjon was a she - Semjon became  Sema .

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 Source

Translated from Russian by Helen Arusoo

See also what we found on the Internet (for those who know Russian):