5 Times Animals Made Crazy History in Idaho

I love animals but am also cautiously respectful because lets face it, they can be downright scary at times and cause all kinds of trouble for humans. Then there are the other times when humans do radical things to animals, like sending them out of planes with parachutes. According to Only In Your State here are some crazy things animals did in Idaho that made national headlines.

Flying Beavers
This is a fun one from way back. Beaver population needed to be redistributed to help habitats naturally develop in certain areas. That is much easier said then done especially in 1948. Someone had a brilliant idea to parachute wooden boxes with beavers down to designated areas. Sounds a bit silly but it worked. The first beaver parachuted into the Frank Church Wilderness was named Geronimo. Check out more and see a video from the actual 'Beaver Drop' here. 

Lions and Tigers Oh My:
In 1995 near Lava Hot Springs around 30 full grown African lions, tigers and cross-bred ligers broke out of their cages and escaped their crummy makeshift shelters. The living conditions were awful for the animals, and it seemed like the animals were being scarified for some sort of cult. It is no wonder why they took off at first chance. Local officials panicked and essentially shut the town nearby down urging residence to stay inside. Not having the knowledge or resources to properly handle such a chaotic situation at least half the adult cats were killed. There were also 5 cubs found that were transported to a shelter in Pocatello.

The Rexburg Snake House:
In 2009 Ben and Amber found their dream house and for a great price - clearly too great-. Somehow it was not obvious right away or they didn't realize how bad the situation was but the house was absolutely infested with thousands of garter snakes. Harmless yes but would you want to live there? Every crevice was loaded with snakes. They were even filling the walls. Ben and Amber managed to last two years sharing the house with snakes before deciding to throw in the white towel. The Animal Planet even did a special on the house giving it national attention.

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Bees Shut Down I-5
Bees are essential. While I respect and apricate what bees do for us that doesn't mean I like them buzzing around me. In 2015 a lot of drivers and citizens of Coeur d'Alene got to experience unexpected chaos on the I-5 freeway as a semi hauling agricultural bees overturned. Thousands of bees with millions of the flying pollinators filled the air within minutes. People were stuck in their cars for hours as traffic backed up and they could not get out or even roll windows down.

Aggressive Goats Close
Don't pet the mountain goat, I repeat, don't pet the mountain goat. I'm only about 6 years too late on that warning. In 2015 Idaho had a bit of a goat problem. Mountain goats are big, they can get up to 300 pounds and should not be messed with. Scotchman Peak in North Idaho has a lot of mountain goats and visitors started getting too close to pet or feed them. The mountain goats started attacking people. So much so that the U.S. Forest Service was forced to close the entire trail system until the goats moved on.