A beaver was spotted Thursday morning at the Grenview entrance of the TTC’s Royal York subway station.
Jenn Abbott posted photos of the critter, that her husband Will took, wandering around the station on Twitter. She said the photos were taken at around 7 a.m.
“I was half asleep,” Will told Global News. “At first I thought someone had dropped a hat. Then it started to move, so I knew it was an animal. I thought it was a groundhog because it was too big to be a rat.”
“Then I saw its tail, and I knew from the back of a nickel that it was a beaver.”
TTC spokesperson Stuart Green said the beaver was removed by animal services and is safe. Grenview’s automatic entrance was temporarily closed due to the beaver but reopened within a short time.
Green said it is believed that the beaver entered through Grenview Boulevard’s auto entrance which is between two local waterways where beavers are commonly seen.
“Station supervisor arrived at 7 a.m. and closed the entrance to ensure the animal wasn’t disturbed and that it didn’t waddle down to platform level,” Green said. “Animal services arrived around 8 a.m. and made a safe recovery.”
The beaver was released back into the wild by animal services staff.
Green said trespassing critters are not uncommon on the TTC.
“While no one recalls a beaver sighting in recent history, we’ve had racoons, deer, escaped dogs, pigeons, opossums and even (pet) crabs find their way into the system,” Green added.
In a Twitter update Monday afternoon, Toronto Animal Services called the beaver “Nickel.”
“‘Nickel’ the beaver was clearly afraid and stressed to find himself amongst so many people, but was healthy, with clear eyes and a slapping tail — all signs of a healthy beaver,” animal services staff tweeted.
Tons of users reacted to the photos, one calling it “the most Canadian thing we’ll see today” with a beaver emoji and a Canadian flag emoji.
“I hope the beaver tapped its PrestoCard,” another person wrote.
“He only paid a nickel,” one person replied.
“What?? A beaver at the subway? Does he/she have a pass? Probably still thinks they take tokens,” another person tweeted.
“Someone give him a mask!” was another reply.
— With files from Samantha Berdini