Beaver in Argentina

25 pairs of beaver were taken to Argentina by someone interested in fur farming. They were under the radar of the local predators and there are now over 200,000 of them in the wild. (Enthusiastic bunch.) They started eating fish. Maybe it was a case of what do you do when you can't find a nice poplar to bite into, but they are a rodent, so I guess it's not that much of a stretch.

With a set of wood chisels for teeth the fish don't have much of a chance. I doubt if there is another predator around that would enjoy chewing through the thick end of a tree. Its vegetarian background gave it a pretty vicious set of tools to bring to the table.

With the change in diet, the beaver started to grow bigger, and when they did that, they started making bigger dams, up to a hundred meters wide. They slice down a lot of old growth trees to make a dam that size, then the dam soaks and rots everything left behind it. From the article I read about the problem in the Epoch Times, it sounded like they have a good start on wrecking the country.

Irritated locals started barbecuing them even though the government hasn't released its report yet on whether they are safe to eat. (Do you think it might be expensive and take a lot of time?)

I'm waiting for a follow up article about packs of beaver attacking alligators and chipping them into little pieces, and about trained beaver being more effective than guard dogs. "Beware of Chisels, he doesn't seem to like his doghouse and the only thing that cheers him up is really fresh meat."

I expect that after just a few encounters with the local crooks, all they would have to hear in the middle of the night is a loud bang from a big tail smacking a fender and they would be over the fence, out of the junkyard, and trying to look innocent in just a few seconds. Not long after, "My Wife is Meaner than a Junkyard Beaver" starts to climb the country charts.

I guess once you get it together to survive in a climate like ours and then you go down where the weather is warm and the living is easy, you need something to do with the left over energy. It just takes an enthusiastic example like that to inspire a person to get out there and chew up the competition.

Keywords: