Steve GannWorld's Largest Beaver Dam Discovered In Northern Canada
May 6th 2010 04:49
The dam is viewable from space and measures over 2,800 feet (850 meters).
Satellite photos confirm the existence of the dam dates back as far as 1990 showing that multiple generations have worked on the massive structure.
Mike Keizer, spokesman for the park, said rangers flew over the heavily forested marshlands last year to try to "have a look." They found significant vegetation growing on the dam itself, suggesting it's very old, he said.
"A new dam would have a lot of fresh sticks," Keizer explained. "This one has grasses growing on it and it's very green."
Part of the dam may have been created by naturally felled trees, and the beavers "opportunistically filled in the gaps."
Thie said he recently identified two smaller dams sprouting at either side of the main dam. In 10 years, all three structures could merge into a mega-dam measuring just short of a kilometer in length, he said.
The region is flat, so the beavers would have had to build a massive structure to stem wetland water flows, Thie said, noting that the dam was visible in NASA satellite imagery from the 1990s.
"It's a unique phenomenon," he said. "Beaver dams are among the few animal-made structures visible from space."
North American beavers build dams to create deep, still pools of water to protect against predators, and to float food and building materials.
Before the Wood Buffalo discovery, the previous record was held by a group of beavers in Three Fork, MT who built a respectable structure measuring 652 meters (2139 feet).
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