The Beaver Underground

“Leave it to the beavers” is a short documentary about one of the few animals apart from man that can actually change the environment. By felling trees, building dams, digging canals, rerouting rivers and creating entirely new lakes, this outsized rodent has an enormous impact on entire ecosystems. Or at least used to have, since the beaver population was at least five times as large in pre-colonial North America compared to today!

While U.S. territory probably isn't big enough for both humans and a burgeoning population of Castor canadensis, it turns out that even these ugly creatures are good for something. The documentary features a hair-dresser (!) who captures stray beavers in Chicago Suburbia (!!) and transfers them to rivers in regions where water becomes scarce during droughts. The beavers respond by digging tunnels, filling their ponds with underground water! In this way, beavers can “make the desert bloom”, making it possible for plants, livestock and humans to thrive during dry seasons.

An interesting “meeting of the minds” between, ahem, primates and rodents…