Domesticated beaver

No, it's not that kind of "beaver".

Today, while riding through the river valley (in Edmonton), I noticed a man crouched down by the side of the river bank, with a beaver standing right beside him. At first I thought maybe it was as stuffed animal or something, but this guy was actually hand feeding this beaver, who was just chillin' on his back legs, munching away.

I stopped and waited for my girlfriend to catch up--and we just looked and watched these two.

There is often a beaver lurking around that part of the river, but I have never seen one so close to people. Eventually we continued on our way, slightly happier after seeing some beaver. On my way back through the river valley (several hours later, after helping my old man paint his house), climbing a hill, I saw a woman standing with her bike on the side of the trail. I thought nothing of it, and continued to pedal by, making sure to avoid eye contact and look in the other direction. And sure enough, in the trees on the river bank, I saw a beaver standing there looking out in the trail (only a couple of feet from the side of it). Surely it was the same beaver as he was maybe 50 feet from where we had seen him earlier. And surely the woman was staring at how unbothered this beaver was by humans, not unlike we were hours before.

I will have to start increasing the outings to this particular part in the valley, as today's events, combined with others (e.g., people walking their pot-belly pig through the trails in the river valley), it seems like a pretty good place to find randomness.