XPost: sci.misc

From the «industrious marvels» department:
Title: 150-year-old Map Reveals that Beaver Dams can Last Centuries
Author: martyb
Date: Sat, 05 Dec 2015 08:29:00 -0500
Link: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=15/12/05/0453211&from=rss

Phoenix666[1] writes:

In the mid-1800s, a railroad director, entrepreneur, and politician named
Lewis Henry Morgan[2] 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[3]. 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[4]—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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Original Submission[5]

Read more of this story[6] at SoylentNews.

Links:
[1]: http://soylentnews.org/~Phoenix666/ (link)
[2]: http://news.sciencemag.org/plants-animals/2015/12/150-year-old-map-reveals-beaver-dams-can-last-centuries (link)
[3]: https://archive.org/details/americanbeaverhi68morg (link)
[4]: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13157-015-0688-5 (link)
[5]: http://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=10956 (link)
[6]: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=15/12/05/0453211&from=rss (link)


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