By Tanda Gmiter | MLive

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Photo courtesy of Nancy May

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Vanishing Act

MACKINAC ISLAND, MI - A beaver family that had become social media darlings to locals and tourists alike on Mackinac Island began disappearing one by one earlier this year, with the family's last kit vanishing this month.

Some believe the animals fell victim to illegal trapping. A few believe someone on the island must know something about what happened to them, prompting a GoFundMe effort to raise reward money for information.

As their absence from "the Cove" continues to be felt, we're taking a look back at their antics which captured so much attention in recent years. It comes courtesy of Nancy May, an island resident whose photos of the beaver parents and their kits drew avid followers on Facebook.

May has shared some of her pictures with MLive readers, and her story of how she became one of their biggest fans.

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Photo courtesy of Nancy May

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A Cozy Lodge in the Cove

About seven years ago, the beaver couple swam into The Cove, a small pond-like area near the island's Lake Huron shoreline at Mission Point, and began building a lodge near the southeastern edge of the popular tourist town.

May said it was an unlikely spot, but she was delighted to have them so close.

About four years ago, she began visiting them with her camera handy.

"They quickly became accustomed to my presence ... . It was absolutely fascinating to watch them, especially with their kits, and over the years, they became famous; an attraction, really," May wrote in a blog she shared with MLive.

"Sometimes, 20 to 30 tourists would gather at the site in the evenings, hoping for a glimpse of them. If they were 'out' they would swim a circle in the cove, taking in their admirers. I only witnessed tail-slapping when people let their dogs get too close. Otherwise, they would swim about the cove, curious as to why all these people were looking at them."

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Photo courtesy of Nancy May

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Willow, Poppy, Maple and Birch

The most recent kits were born in summer 2017, four little beavers that popped up outside the lodge with their parents that July. They were already about six weeks old, May guesses, and she was smitten.

She watched them so much she could easily tell the little fur bundles apart. She and a friend named them: Poppy, Willow, Maple and Birch.

"From that day on, we watched them grow, observed behavior, and delighted in their antics; their personalities became clearer and clearer!"

"People came daily to view them: Some left carrots, apples or branches for them; some came to torment them and others to teach their children about wildlife. People from all over the country viewed posts about them on our local blog."

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Photo courtesy of Nancy May

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Photo courtesy of Nancy May

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A Fall Storm, Then a Brutal Winter

Last fall, admirers of the little family were worried when a late October storm destroyed half the beavers' lodge.

The animals got a little help from the government.

Longtime Mackinac Island Mayor Margaret Doud sent a horse-drawn wagon down to the Cove, loaded with fresh tree cuttings, May said. Within a couple days, the beavers had repaired their lodge, just in time for the harsh winter ahead.

May remembers the cold and wind as being extreme on the island. Ice filled the Cove and the nearby Straits of Mackinac, between Michigan's Upper and Lower peninsulas.

"Then, in mid-winter, gale-force winds blew for three days," she wrote. "The ice broke up and the east wind drove 3-foot-thick icebergs into the Cove and piled them on end up against the lodge."

Fearing the beaver family was trapped, May called in reinforcements to help her clear an opening next to the lodge.

"Later in the day, fresh branches were delivered along with apples, and at about 5 p.m. they popped up. We were overjoyed."

Other special deliveries followed as winter wore on, she said.

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Photo courtesy of Nancy May

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Photo courtesy of Nancy May

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And Then There Were None ...

When this spring arrived, the whole family was out roaming around the Cove again.

But the little happy family tableau did not last long.

The pregnant mother beaver disappeared first this past May, followed by the father.

"Then, one-by-one, the kits began to disappear. Lots of people commented that they had just probably moved on, but at this point, I knew enough about their behavior to know that one-year-olds don’t leave the colony; and that a pregnant Mom doesn’t just decide to leave and start a new lodge elsewhere, especially without taking her family along!"

The last beaver kit disappeared in early August.

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Photo courtesy of Nancy May

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Another Perspective

Adam Bump, a furbearer specialist with the Michigan Department of Natural Resource's Wildlife Division, said while he can't speak to this particular beaver family on Mackinac Island, he does know that some animals like their privacy. And they don't necessarily need all the help that people think they might to survive Michigan's harsh winters.

He wondered in this case if perhaps there were too many people coming too close to the lodge.

"Some beavers can get used to people and have no issues," Bump said of the species, clever little wetland engineers which can be found throughout Michigan's watersheds. "But the repeated, constant presence of people could be a potential reason" for their disappearance, he said.

"Maybe something happened there and they moved on their own?" He would recommend that people enjoy and watch wild animals from a distance, knowing that they "do OK on their own."

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Photo courtesy of Nancy May

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Muskrats Move In

Nancy May is saddened by the little family's disappearance. She knows some property owners on the island were not enamored of them, but for her and others their absence is a blow.

"Hundreds of tourists were fascinated by them and wrote to tell me how excited they were to return to Mackinac and see the beavers," May wrote. "They, too, have been robbed."

"Because of the high water, the cove has become 'open water' and another family is unlikely to make it home. A pair of muskrats has taken over the lodge ( they often roomed with the beavers on cold nights) but they will miss the warmth of the beavers come winter! And so will I."