Customers at their local pub were left stunned after a beaver walked into the bar, before waddling off into the smoking area in the beer garden.
Punters at the at the Yew Tree Pub in Norton Canes, West Midlands, were left scratching their heads when the large rodent wandered in at around 8.45pm on Monday evening.
The unusual visitor scampered past shocked customers in the main bar, as it proceeded to walk to the smoking shelter outside - where it took cover behind some chairs.
Volunteers from a local wildlife sanctuary were immediately called to the scene, where it's reported they found the creature casually "lying on its back washing itself" in the beer garden.
After a few attempts to coax it, the animal was eventually enticed into a cage before being checked over by a vet - where it was found to be healthy.
Lindsay Newell, from Linjoy Wildlife Sanctuary and Rescue, worked with Natural England and Staffordshire Wildlife Trust to transfer it to a specialist centre.
She said she didn't believe the call at first, and at first thought people had mistaken the beaver for an otter.
The wildlife rescuer said that beavers were rarely, if ever, found in the densely-populated Midlands areas.
Lindsay said that when the volunteers arrived: "Lo and behold there was a massive beaver just casually sitting in the beer garden underneath chairs in the smoking shelter.
"We were a bit surprised to hear it was a beaver as we've never seen one up close and were struggling to believe a beaver would actually walk into a pub.
"But it didn't seem to mind being there at all. He was relaxing on his back and giving himself a wash."
She added: "Locals were joking that maybe he had been looking for a pint of Beavertown Neck Oil.
"Our volunteer Gareth found him outside under the chairs and managed to get him into the cage by tapping it with his shoe and he just ran into it."
The beaver is now back safe in the wild, as it was "chipped and registered with Natural England and had escaped. But the owner doesn't want any publicity so we can't reveal where it came from."
Jokingly, Lindsay added: "I don't know what drink it wanted in the pub - but I'm just glad that it got out safely."
It was announced last year that beavers were to be reintroduced at various sites across England and Wales after 400 years of extinction.
And the government revealed this week that from October beavers are to be legally protected in England from being captured, killed, injured or disturbed without a licence.
The first wild beavers were released in Scotland in 2009 before wildlife trusts in England followed suit and there are now thought to be as many as 800 in the wild.
