Adrienne Ivey is working double duty right now.
It’s calving season, which means she and her husband have to head out to check on the cattle on their Ituna farm every hour.
But the Saskatchewan rancher is also fielding a countless stream of requests over an unusual encounter she caught on camera.
On Friday, Ivey witnessed a beaver herding her 150 cows.
Ivey shared the video of the occurrence online.
“I knew how much we enjoyed it just seeing it ourselves and I knew the farming community would get a good chuckle out of it,” she said on why she shared the video.
It went on to get what Ivey describes as “beyond crazy” attention.
“It’s absolutely amazing how this has not only connected with Canadians – because it was such a Canadian moment – but even across the world,” Ivey said, adding she’s received calls from as far as New York and London, England.
She said the video went viral not only because of people on the internet’s fondness for animal videos but also because it gave a glimpse into a world not everyone’s familiar with.
“I may get to see random things like this on the ranch every day, but most people don’t actually get to see what happens on a ranch so any glimpse into that is a bit of a novelty,” Ivey suggested.
“I’m just happy I could share that with them.”
Ivey said she’s relishing the opportunity to teach people about farm life.
“It’s been a wonderful opportunity for me to talk about the fact we have an abundance of wildlife on the ranch and that our cattle share the land with that wildlife on a daily basis,” Ivey said before adding, “They don’t interact like this probably on a daily basis, or at least that we get to see.”
The viral sensation has also put Ituna on the map again. The small town, located 165 kilometres northeast of Regina, was a runner-up in this year’s Kraft Hockeyville contest.
While the international reaction has been exciting, Ivey said people in Ituna aren’t surprised.
“We have so many beavers around here that I don’t know if this is a total shock to them, but I think they’re enjoying this as much as I am.”