You know with a headline like this I couldn’t help reading all the way to the end.. I have to say it was still a surprise – especially from a BBC publication!

10 ecosystem killers: Destructive, brutal animals that destroy entire habitats

When they are in the wrong place these 10 animals wreck havoc on ecosystems across the globe — reshaping habitats, outcompeting native species, and pushing biodiversity to the brink.

Okay so it starts with the usual slugs and snakes and bull frogs. Then it gets interesting…

Beaver

This big, bucktoothed rodent is hailed for its ability to create habitats rather than destroy them. By felling trees and damming streams, it engineers wetland ecosystems that boost aquatic biodiversity and double as natural flood defences.

But you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs. Valleys that once held bubbling streams, shady woodland and wildflower meadows become quite literally swamped by standing water. Trees die, dams block the passage of migratory fish, and species that require flowing water quietly disappear.

There you go. Trees die and migratory fish suffer unspeakable harm.

In the beaver’s native ranges, these trade-offs are part of long-established ecological processes. In places where beavers don’t belong, though, the downsides can be more striking. Beavers introduced from North to South America have destroyed swathes of native beech forest in Tierra del Fuego.

Whether you see the activities of these quintessential ecosystem engineers as creative or destructive depends on where you stand when the water starts to rise.

You know how as a kid your parents parents always lectured you about trouble your uncle  got into before you were even born and warned you to never never do anything like that even though you couldn’t possibly and didn’t even drive a tractor and  lived in a completely different country and it wasn’t even relevant?

Yeah,  like that.