Giant Beaver Dam Visible From Space

Busy beavers, indeed: Biologists recently discovered a beaver dam in a remote Canadian national park that stretches for more than half a mile—2,790 feet long to be exact. That’s over a half-mile long, and it’s visible from space.

Scientists think that beavers in Alberta’s Wood Buffalo National Park spent over 20 years building their expansive palace from sticks, rocks, and mud, and several generations have used it as a comfortable home. Biologists working in the park found the beaver dam by accident while trolling Google Earth in 2007, and recently visited to confirm its existence.

They built the dam in an extremely remote and inaccessible place, which is partially why it got so big. Without any interference from humans, the beavers were able to continually build in this section of wetland. With typical scientific enthusiasm, researchers describe it as “particularly big.”

This giant beaver dam totally crushes the previous record, held by a bunch of beavers near Three Forks, Mont. C’mon, American beavers—are you really going to let Canada keep the record? Build faster!!

—Ted Alvarez

via Treehugger