Dam Fun Facts About Beavers
SciShow shares fun facts about nature's greatest engineers: the beaver! Special thanks to Dr. Heidi Perryman of http://www.martinezbeavers.org/ for pointing out some of our photo examples...
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They're one of the largest rodents in the world, they're indisputably adorable, and hey, Canada doesn't put just anyone on their money. But the main reason you should appreciate beavers is that they're second only to us in their ability to completely transform the environments they live in. Usually for the better, though. While we like to surround ourselves with warehouse stores and hamburger restaurants, beavers will turn a stream-fed meadow -- even a patch of desert -- into a lush, watery habitat for all sorts of wildlife, aquatic and land-lubber alike. They do it, of course, by building dams. And darn, can these guys dam. Most beaver dams are 5 to 10 meters long and form small ponds behind them. But sometimes these structures have been know...
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They're one of the largest rodents in the world, they're indisputably adorable, and hey, Canada doesn't put just anyone on their money. But the main reason you should appreciate beavers is that they're second only to us in their ability to completely transform the environments they live in. Usually for the better, though. While we like to surround ourselves with warehouse stores and hamburger restaurants, beavers will turn a stream-fed meadow -- even a patch of desert -- into a lush, watery habitat for all sorts of wildlife, aquatic and land-lubber alike. They do it, of course, by building dams. And darn, can these guys dam. Most beaver dams are 5 to 10 meters long and form small ponds behind them. But sometimes these structures have been know...
