“In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.” ― Aristotle
Beavers on Ukraine’s border with Belarus have been left alone by farmers and other landowners. Their dams and populations are no longer threatened by Ukrainians in the region of Volyn due to Vlad the Bloody’s invasion. They have been left to do their thing: change the local ecosystem back into a watery wonderland.
The beaver dams are constructed with cut trees and branches with mud and grass, sealing their homes from the elements by the razor-sharp teeth of the giant rodents make possible. They build these dams for one reason only; it keeps them safe from predators such as humans, bears, and wolves. The dam creates a denning and birthing space and storage for food as winter settles in and freezes the water and soil.
The beaver weighs up to eighty pounds and is a prime dinner item for a hungry predator. Their large size makes them very vulnerable while on land. But in water, they are pretty safe from predation.
The dams create floods, ponds, wetlands, and swamps, providing secure access to their food sources of bark, leaves, twigs, and reeds. They even build canal networks.
This flooding not only helps local ecosystems to thrive, but it also has, in the case of Belarus and the Ukrainian border, creating a barrier for any of Putin and his allies to invade Ukraine from the north of Kyiv.
Isn’t nature grand?
From Business Insider:
Local beavers are helping Ukraine defend itself from a potential new front in Russia's invasion, Reuters reported on Thursday.
The animals are unwittingly helping Kyiv by building dams that keep the ground marshy and impassable, a military spokesman told the agency.
This helps Ukraine by making it less likely that an attack could come via Belarus, which borders Ukraine not far north of the capital Kyiv.
Ukrainian officials had warned that Russia may wage an offensive through its ally Belarus into a region of Ukraine called Volyn.
Defense forces there, however, have been reassured by conditions on the ground, left impassable by miles of burst river banks, thick mud, and waterlogged fields.
Reuters:
Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko allowed Moscow to use his country as one of the launchpads to invade Ukraine last February, when Russian forces were beaten back in an attempt to take the capital Kyiv.
Across the border on Thursday, the deputy commander of what Moscow calls its "special military operation" inspected Russian forces in Belarus. On the Ukrainian side, the Volyn brigade was busy practicing indoor combat and coming under artillery fire.
Analyst Konrad Muzyka, who runs defence consultancy Rochan Consulting, told Reuters that although a Russian troop build-up could be observed in Belarus, an attack into north-west Ukraine from Belarus would face enormous difficulties.
"It's a horrible place to conduct an offensive operation. There are many watercourses there, very few roads," he said.