Beaver Dam

The European Beaver Castor fiber is the largest rodent in Europe. They really are busy animals making dams, forming channels, making trails along which to drag timber. In Poland recently we found dozens of places were they were active, with felled trees, gnawed stumps and tree after tree with tooth marks. This photo shows one of the best dams we found where a deep pool had been created from a tiny stream. I recall a friend in the Czech Republic telling me that the water authority kept destroying a particular dam as it blocked a drainage channnel. But every morning of the next day there was the dam again, freshly built during the night.