This article in Anthropocene has the finest beaver quote I believe I have ever read. Better than the beaver isn’t just an animal, its an ecosystem. But along the same lines:
Beaver-engineered habitats are outperforming ours
Two studies find that beaver-engineered wetlands attract twice as many hoverflies, nearly 50% more butterflies, and a richer variety of bats compared to human-made ponds or free-flowing streams.
Beavers have recently enjoyed a makeover as ecological heroes. Their dams and ponds, once destroyed as a pesky source of flooding, are now hailed as water-cleansing oases that do everything from harbor fish to buffer the landscape from wildfires.
But less has been said about their effects on terrestrial creatures in the surrounding land. It turns out the effects of these paddle-tailed rodents extends well beyond the water’s edge. Recent research by two separate groups of scientists in Europe shows that beavers are a boon to a host of winged creatures ranging from bats to tiny flies.
The new findings have researchers declaring: Bring on the beavers (and their ponds). “Our work adds further important evidence of the beneficial effects of beaver wetlands for wildlife,” said Patrick Cook, an ecologist at the University of Stirling in the United Kingdom.
The work by Cook and his collaborators focused on how beavers might benefit pollinating insects, such as bees, butterflies and flies. They compared the insects found flitting among the foliage around beaver ponds and surrounding wetlands with human-made ponds in a patch of Scottish pasture.
They discovered that hoverflies were more than twice as abundant in beaver ponds and 45% more butterflies were found there compared to the artificial ponds, the scientists reported in the Journal of Applied Ecology. There was no difference for moths or bees.
Well of course. They have to go where the eating/mating/drinking is good right?
Perhaps given this proliferation of insects, it should come as no surprise that another group of scientists in Switzerland found that bats—many of whom eat insects—were drawn to beaver ponds as well.
The beaver ponds also had larger numbers of pollinator species that thrive in damp ground and rotting or dead vegetation, all things associated with beaver ponds.
Still, the love-hate relationship between people and beavers means scientists studying their ecological effects are lobbying people to let the animals work their magic on the landscape. They could, among other things, provide a needed boost for insects and bats that are both in decline.
BOOM!
Here endeth the lesson.
