How did beavers come up with the idea of ​​building dams and lodges in the process of evolution? (6 photos)

The Nickelodeon cartoon didn't lie, beavers are really cool! What people learn over five years at a polytechnic school, rodents know from birth. But have you ever wondered when the first beaver came up with the idea to settle in a pile of branches and build a dam on the river?..





Let's understand the reasons for the creation of these engineering wonders of nature through simple visualization. Let's fast forward to 7-8 million years ago. You are what people in the future will call a beaver. A medium-sized rodent with a semi-aquatic lifestyle. You feed on the bark of trees and their shoots; medium and large predators feed on you.



By the way, some types of beavers were the size of bears. True, they have not survived to this day. And all because they didn’t build the dam!

It’s difficult to survive with such introductions, but it’s possible. And then - CLAP! — surprise, Pleistocene glaciation. Now winter lasts not six months, but 9 months. The thermometer drops to -60! In order not to become numb, the rodents came up with an elegant solution - to build a house. Most likely, the ancestors of modern beavers began by building huts, similar to those built by muskrats. The building material is literally dirt and sticks. Yes, it’s not a European-quality renovation, but it’s very warm! Even in severe frosts, the temperature in the rodents’ home does not drop below +5 degrees.





Now huts can rise 3 meters above the water, and their diameter reaches up to 10!

Now the beavers won't freeze to death. Hooray! But there was one more problem... Even modern winters in the taiga are long and harsh. Water in shallow reservoirs freezes to the very bottom. In this situation, aquatic life will inevitably die.

But beavers are so cool that they got out of this situation! If the reservoir freezes to the very bottom, then its level needs to be raised. In this case, the only engineering solution will be a dam. This is how beaver dams came into being.



This is the largest beaver dam in the world. It is so gigantic that it can be seen from space!

This structure immediately provides a lot of advantages. Firstly, now beavers are not afraid of glaciation in the reservoir. All winter they will swim under the ice - completely safe from predators. Secondly, in winter the dam turns into a refrigerator. In the fall, industrious rodents stock up on branches by sticking them into the bottom of the reservoir.



Every self-respecting beaver should raise a son, build a hut and stick a twig into the bottom. Kind of like a tree.

Thirdly, rodents change entire ecosystems with their paws! Unique species of fish, insects and shellfish breed in the dams. And fertile silt settles on the banks from the spilled water. But every silver lining is without a beaver—people feel the results of construction work like no other. Their houses and plots are literally flooded!



A man attends a master class on dam construction.