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posted by martyb on Saturday December 05 2015, @01:29PM   Printer-friendly
from the location-location-location dept.

In the mid-1800s, a railroad director, entrepreneur, and politician named Lewis Henry Morgan began visiting a largely undeveloped swath of land dotted with beaver ponds in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. What he saw amazed him: "[A] beaver district, more remarkable, perhaps, than any other of equal extent to be found in any part of North America," he wrote. "A rare opportunity was thus offered to examine the works of the beaver, and to see him in his native wilds."

[...] For years, he carefully documented how the beavers behaved and where they built their dams and ponds. Then, in 1868, Morgan published his 396-page beaver bible: The American Beaver and His Works. Folded into each copy was a map, carefully drawn by his railroad's engineers, which detailed the locations of 64 beaver dams and ponds spread over some 125 square kilometers near the community of Ishpeming.

Now, that rare map is giving researchers some new insight into just how busy beavers can be. A new survey shows that many of the dams and ponds that Morgan saw nearly 150 years ago are still there—testament to the resilience of the rodents and their ability to maintain structures over many generations.

All that remains for our energy needs to be met is to teach beavers how to install turbines.


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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by nitehawk214 on Saturday December 05 2015, @05:12PM

    by nitehawk214 (1304) on Saturday December 05 2015, @05:12PM (#272199)

    If a dam gets washed way that seems like maybe it was a poor place to put it. But it depends on how often the area floods, I suppose.

    --
    "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by wisnoskij on Saturday December 05 2015, @05:23PM

    by wisnoskij (5149) <reversethis-{moc ... ksonsiwnohtanoj}> on Saturday December 05 2015, @05:23PM (#272203)

    The beavers will not remember. As long as the geographical shape of the land remains the same, beavers will continue to think it is a good place to build a dam.

    • (Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Saturday December 05 2015, @07:05PM

      by nitehawk214 (1304) on Saturday December 05 2015, @07:05PM (#272237)

      Damn

      --
      "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Saturday December 05 2015, @08:10PM

      by frojack (1554) on Saturday December 05 2015, @08:10PM (#272259) Journal

      The beavers will not remember.

      Beavers don't migrate all that far from where they were born. It is their native home territory, so "memory" probably does enter into it to some degree.

      Beavers judge the proper water height by the size of their pond, and the depth of the entrance to their beaver houses (which have under water entrances.)

      Dams occasionally get breached (Humans are the beaver's worst enemy), but beavers seem to have an innate understanding of water depth, and they quickly locate and start repairing the breach. They have an uncanny ability to detect the location of flowing water, and they will always start filling the largest flow first, and only stop working on flows as the water height returns to their liking.

      During low rain-fall periods, beavers will dam up the smallest water flow. When rain is plentiful they ignore these. Its all about the depth.

      --
      No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.