We talked Hoppers science with a real-life beaver expert

"We do study animals in the wild that way. If you're rehabbing a baby animal, you might want to dress up as an adult version of it so that it doesn't learn that humans are its parents. We do use robots, although I don't shape mine like beavers. I fly drones pretty often in the field. We also use game cameras, which are cameras that we can tie to trees and study beavers that way."

"I think it would be amazing if we could hop into an actual animal's body and go in there and communicate with them, because you can only learn so much from the aerial view from 10,000 feet."

"A keystone species is an animal that, for whatever reason, a lot of other animals and plants depend on."

Field researchers employ various methods to study wild beavers, including drones, game cameras mounted on trees, and remote observation from distance. While the film Hoppers depicts scientists using robot beaver bodies and animal costumes to infiltrate beaver colonies, these methods are largely fictional. Real beaver expert Emily Fairfax explains that costumes are occasionally used when rehabilitating baby animals to prevent them from imprinting on humans as parents. Drones are commonly deployed for aerial observation, though they provide limited perspective from high altitudes. Beavers are classified as keystone species, meaning numerous other animals and plants depend on them for survival and ecosystem function.

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