Add this to the list of why beavers are fricking cool because this article just made my day. Nothing I love better than when beavers stump their scientists!
Beaver defies experts by surviving second winter in Polish mountains
A beaver has surprised wildlife experts by surviving a second winter in the Polish High Tatra mountains, where temperatures can drop below -20°C (-4°F) at night. Park rangers now see signs that the animal has been joined by others, indicating that a new colony may be established there.
The creature was first spotted at Morskie Oko, the largest lake in the Tatra Mountains, in August 2021. It was the first case in modern memory of a beaver being observed at such a high altitude in the Polish mountains, with Morskie Oko being almost 1,400 metres (4,593 feet) above sea level.
Rangers at Tatra National Park (TPN) initially believed that the beaver had simply wandered to higher ground in a one-off event, but it soon became apparent that the animal had made its home at Morskie Oko, an unusual habitat for the animal.
Questions were raised about whether and how the beaver, which does not hibernate, would be able to survive the cold Tatra winter. But contrary to reports that the animal had died from a fall, it was later revealed that the beaver had in fact survived its first winter and continued to be spotted by the lake.
In a video published by TPN last week, park ranger Grzegorz Bryniarski revealed that the beaver has now “survived a second winter and is doing well”. The elusive creature is still yet to be caught on camera, but traces of its presence are clear in the area.
Beavers are sooooo damn cool even at 5000 feet where no remembers they ever used to thrive some reintroduced sucker found his ways to the habitat edges and moved right in with the wife and kids. Even thought this beaver might not have been in the habit of keeping a food cache he made do with a hole in the ice that he carefully maintained to bring in supplies.
“Its presence can be seen on the ice, where it has created a hole and dragged branches to this area,” Bryniarski later told the Polish Press Agency (PAP). “Its presence is also indicated by numerous tracks on the snow – it has trodden a footpath and cut down willows.”
Some believe that this could be the beginning of a beaver population in the Tatras. “Beavers are animals that are constantly looking for new areas for themselves. They should feel at ease in the national park,” Andrzej Czech, a renowned expert on beavers, told Gazeta Wyborcza.
“I expect that a large colony of beavers may soon be established in the area of Morskie Oko and they will become a permanent feature of the Tatra wilderness.”
The polish scientists forgot what beavers are made of when they were busy exterminating all of them for their fur. Let;s hope they remember better this time.
