Lake Saimaa at Ristiina is the largest lake in Finland and the fourth largest lake in all of Europe. It was formed by a giant glaciar melting at the end of the last ice age. It is the only known home of the rare fresh water ‘ringed seal’. And the Saimaa salmon. And weirdly enough once harvested for its easily accessible asbestos.

And it apparently has invented BRAND NEW BEAVERS!

Beavers losing damming instinct

Observers say that beavers in eastern parts of Finland country are losing their natural instinct to build dams. Because of population pressures some beavers have moved into waterways where they have had to adapt to fluctuating water levels.

Canadian beavers were introduced to Finland in the 1930s after the indigenous European beaver population had been hunted to extinction in the 19th century. There are now an estimated 10-thousand beavers in the country, up to half of them in the South Savo region.

Population pressures, competition for living space and food, have brought more into large waterways such as Lake Saimaa. With a surface area of 4,400 square kilometres, Lake Saimaa provides plenty of room to spread out.

Get out! Beavers living in the largest lake in Finland! Where there’s deep enough water that they don’t need to build dams to feel safe? Are you kidding me? That never always happens!

Beavers usually build damns in rivers and streams, to create ponds where they build their lodges. Those who have moved into Lake Saimaa, have had to adapt to a lifestyle of fluctuating water levels, rather than damming and regulating the waters themselves. In the process, they seem to have lost the desire to do so.

These beavers now create burrows or dens for themselves along the shores of the lake.

Shocking! These beavers have tossed tradition aside and now build burrows for themselves along the shores of the lake! Like squatters in a subway station! What about the ‘lodges’ of their fathers? Have they no respect for the fabric of their society? Is nothing sacred?

“They have had to adapt so that if the water level of Lake Saimaa falls, they change dens and diets. They change locations, and then if the waters rise too high for their dens, then they abandon them and build new dens higher up the shore,” explains Risto Hirvonen, a member of a local hunting club.

A member of the local hunting club? The source for this ground-breaking genetics research that is showing beaver instinct in an unprecedented state of devolution? No offense, Risto. But shouldn’t the reporter have talked to some biologist or geneticist at the University? Someone’s obviously publishing papers on this brand new behavior, right? I mean it belongs in a journal somewhere!

Just for clarification. In large bodies of water like Great Lakes or the Colorado River or the Sacramento Delta, beavers have enough water that they do not require dams and they subsequently do not build dams. That has been true since dawn rose on the first beaver on the first day. Beavers sometimes live in holes in the bank. In Finland. In Martinez and in Canada. That has also been true since time immemorial.