I for one welcome our new rodent overlords.

[truepenny]

Found via Alex Bledsoe:

World's largest beaver dam visible from space.

My favorite part of the article:

Thie said he also found evidence that beavers were repopulating old habitats after being hunted extensively for pelts in past centuries.

"They're invading their old territories in a remarkable way in Canada," he said. "I found huge dams throughout Canada, and beaver colonies with up to 100 of them in a square kilometer."

"They're re-engineering the landscape," he said.

Castor canadensis canadensis FTW.

Comments

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

They're a bit of a pain in the ass in Maine. Keep blocking culverts -- easiest place to build a dam . . .

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

I remember my uncle playing "Dambusters" with them in Massachusetts (though he wasn't actually using that set of tools for the job).

overlords?

[marycatelli]

Beavers are engineers. (Remember, beavers have no interest in dams that look like they will hold back water.) They have absolutely no interest in being an overlord. Why they'd have to try to get people to do stuff, and not just by design the user interface so that error is impossible.

[ejmam.livejournal.com]

Very cool.

Although "visible from space" doesn't mean quite the same thing anymore. The car in my driveway is visible from space, using google earth.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Yes, but the car in your driveway is not 2800 feet long. *g*

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Right. And yet they're both in that category.

Thus that category is no longer a good way to express "immensely unbelievably huge OMG!"

[talkswithwind]

They slightly redeemed themselves by pointing out that the structure was also visible in 90's era NASA imagery. But still, it'd take someone who knows exactly what they're looking for to spot it in low-earth-orbit with a Mk 1 eyeball.

I hear they think this dam was started in the 1970s...

[rattlecatcher.livejournal.com]

Which totally explains those bell bottoms.