For years, officials in the Czech Republic pushed the project of the dam to protect the river south of Prague and critically endangered species living in it. However, the project stopped.
Meanwhile, a group of mammals of the Secators-enabled their engineering skills and work ethics and unloaded bureaucracy- decided to take over this task. Beavers of Prague built dams themselves.
Rodent’s quick work saved local authorities about 1.2 million euros, according to a press release From the Agency for Nature Conservation of the Czech Republic, government agencies responsible for protection throughout the country. “Nature took part in the course,” said Bohumil Fišer, head of the Brdy Protected Landscape, where the revitalization project was planned. Beavers, added, created the ideal conditions of the environment “practically overnight”.
Project, he Ex -army place In Klabava, the river was about 40 kilometers southwest of Prague, the Czech capital, in 2018 to work out and had a building permit, but for years it was delayed by negotiations on the country, which was used as a military training area, Agence France-Presse reported Tuesday. The officials hoped to build a barrier to protect the river and its population of critically endangered crayfish from sediment and sour water, which spills from two nearby ponds, informed AFP.
Beavers started working before the excavators could even break. It was not immediately clear when the dams were built and how long it took them to build them.
The new wetland created by dams covers almost five acres, the protection group said. It is twice as big as the area that people planned, France-Presse’s agence reported. “It’s a complete service,” said Mr. Fišer AFP “Beavers are absolutely fantastic, and when they are unable to cause damage, they do a great job.”
In spite of their remarkable ability The construction of dams, beavers often attract the anger of land owners and farmers for destroying trees, consumption of crops and flood roads and fields. However, when the tree canopy is thinned, rodents can often help diversify the ecosystem by allowing sunlight so that other plant species can prosper, said Emily Fairfax, associate professor of ecology at the University of Minnesota.
“It fundamentally changes the way the water and life move in this landscape,” she said.
In order to build a dam, beavers whose weight as adults can range from about 40 to 80 pounds, start Grave small stones Through the river or stream, packing these stones in mud and repetition of the process for creating a pond, which then expand to become a wetland, said Dr. Fairfax.
They are motivated by their fear of predators: beavers are adept swimmers and can hold their breath under water for 15 minutes. On the ground, their steadfastly ground makes prey easier. “They are basically a large chicken nugget for predators,” which include Bears, Mountain Lions and Wolves, she said.
The Czech dam is not the first time the rodents helped in the construction of wetland. Beavers in California have helped recover A flood of about 30 miles northeast of Sacramento. In this case, also Beavers’ work helped local officials save money. “The only thing they had to do was to leave the beavers there,” Dr. Fairfax. In other cases, beavers often worked, which has not changed. “We have a little blindness for beavers,” she said, noting that they were often considered to be harassing because of their alarming size and ability to quickly change the landscape.
“They are powerful, they are big and are elusive,” Dr. Fairfax and noted that, despite the engineering fitness of Beavers, they presented a challenge for nature conservation in the planning projects.
“We often do not want to allow beavers to decide because it is difficult to plan this uncertainty; it is difficult to turn control on a giant water rodent,” she said. “But then beavers are the best.”
