Polish beavers scale new heights
PR dla Zagranicy
Aleksander Nowacki
03.03.2015 13:06
Poland’s sole high-mountain national park gets its first-ever beaver colony, the park rangers said on Tuesday.
The Eurasian beaver Photo: cc/wiki
The beavers, which have so far limited themselves to scouring the foothills of the Tatra mountains, have scaled the slopes up to the level of 1,100 metres above sea level this winter.
This marks the first time that rodent engineers have been spotted this high. “These are pioneer climbers,” among beavers, ranger Marcin Strączek-Helios is quoted as saying.
The rangers are yet to see the beavers with the naked eye, but the effects of their presence have been obvious since October. Felled trees with trunk perimeter of 10-20 centimetres blocked the Palenica stream near the famous lake of Morskie Oko, creating a pool of water 1.5 metre deep and 10 metres wide.
Two animals, thought to be international migrants from Slovakia, have been caught on camera. The exact size of the colony is yet to be determined.
Poland's beaver population is on the up in recent years, leading farmers to complain of significant damage inflicted by the dam builders. (an)
Source: TVN24