1.5-minute read
Conservation quiz: Which plant-eating members of the animal kingdom have been directing their big, buck-toothed energy towards the task of healing the planet? According to a study in south-central Sweden, beavers going about their day-to-day dam building business are helping to increase biodiversity that is essential to the functioning of freshwater ecosystems.
By constructing mud and stick barriers that increase water levels, the paddle-tailed environmental change agents are engineering pond habitats that support a 50% greater variety of plants and animals than similar beaver-free wetlands. While you might think a pond is a pond is a pond, according to environmental researchers, there are subtle differences in beaver ponds that make them hospitable to more species of fish, birds, insects, amphibians, and plant life. What’s good for beavers is good for biodiversity. And what’s good for biodiversity is good for people and the planet.
Beavers can be found throughout North America, and small populations exist in Scandinavia, Germany, France, Poland, and central Russia. Following their extinction in Sweden in the 1890s, beavers were reintroduced from neighboring Norway between 1922 and 1939. Dams built by the imported animals helped to expand wildlife habitats and increase resilience to both droughts and floods. Over the past half century, more countries have jumped on the bring-back-the-beavers bandwagon, including England, which recently reintroduced the industrious creatures to the wild after 400 years.
While beavers can’t stop freshwater biodiversity loss on their own, at a time when flora and fauna are decreasing at an alarming rate, wider implementation of beaver-based wetland-engineering is a holistic way to protect and restore ecosystems for a healthier biosphere.
By the way, if you’ve ever wondered why beavers have tangerine-colored teeth, it’s not because they’re tree stained. The keystone species’ incisors are handily reinforced with iron to help them gnaw through even the toughest tree trunks with ease. Beaver on, aquatic architects!
