Sometimes headline is all you need to make you very, very happy. Like this one for instance.

How Dangerous Is the Beaver?

Even if that was all there was, Just an inflammatory headline and a great photo, it would be enough to amuse me with endless Monty Python scenarios. Imagine how lucky I felt when the article continued?

With their oversized front teeth, beady little eyes and funny flat tails, beavers look less like crazed killers and more like the goofballs of the woods. Yet with their distinctive orange-colored incisors, these furry wonders can slash through a finger-sized tree branch with just a single chomp. So that begs the question: Are beavers dangerous to humans?

Oh my goodness. Get me the popcorn. This is going to be good.

It turns out that yes, in certain circumstances, beavers might harm people and pets.

Of course they go on to describe Belarus because they’ll never live that down. But I was especially pleased to see this:

Do Beavers Help or Hurt the Environment?

The results are often a win-win for both beavers and other creatures. “Beavers are tremendously beneficial to the environment. They are North American ‘keystone species‘ meaning their presence on the landscape increases biodiversity,” says Callahan. “Beavers build dams to turn streams into ponds. The new habitats created support innumerable plant, insect, fish and animal species, including salmon and other endangered species.”

He also says that beaver ponds also help fight climate change and wildfires, store precious water and recharge ground water aquifers, improve water quality by removing pollutants from the water, and fix eroded stream channels and restore healthy watersheds. “And beavers perform all these valuable ecosystem services for free!” he adds.