Why are beavers obsessed with dams? - Glynnis Hood

Explore how beavers build their impressive dams, and what impact these structures have on the surrounding environment.

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Nestled in the forests of Canada sits the world’s longest beaver dam. This 850-meter-long structure is large enough to be seen in satellite imagery and has dramatically transformed the region, creating a pond containing 70 million liters of water. But dams of any size can have huge impacts on their environment. So how exactly do beavers build these impressive structures? Glynnis Hood investigates.

Lesson by Glynnis Hood, directed by Keegan Thornhill.

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[micahbush]

Also worth noting: Beaver dams trap sediment and nutrients at the bottom of the pond, so when dams are abandoned (say, due to an exhaustion of suitable food sources) and fall into disrepair, the drained pond becomes the site of rich meadows, which support a host of additional species.

[at_plato]

As a Civil Engineer, Beavers 🦫 are my Inspiration and my spirit animals.

[brainmaster]

The quest for knowledge and understanding never gets dark and the more we ask why in videos like these, the more students know and the more remarkable the world truly seems.

[IAmEvilTree]

UK guy here and we've seen the benefits of our beaver reintroduction program; during a recent heatwave and drought, the land beavers are based on remained lush and green while the farmland around was dry and brown. I'm hoping the program continues and expands to more counties.

[terramater]

Beavers are really like environmental engineers! Our crew filmed a project that aimed to bring wilderness back to the UK. We had a chance to talk to a couple who managed to get Eurasian beavers back to Cornwall to transform their farm into a biodiversity hotspot. Beavers are constantly working, building dams, cutting down trees or building a lodge. And this is key to sparking new life into the wilderness. We're curious to see how the farm in Cornwall will respond after the reintroduction of beavers.

[cerarobert]

So, Beavers are architects after all. Amazing. I could learn a lot from them.😉😄

[Knight]

Thanks Ted-Ed, now I wanna see a beaver dam in person. 😂

[MoralesCorner]

These little chunks are such diligent workers. What fantastic little creatures they are

[dilrajsingh]

*Ted-ed:- Why beavers builds dams?*
Me:- Cause they love to flex on other animals who can't.

[HayTatsuko]

Gosh, the animation in this is super charming! Well-done on that, and on the narration. I wish my grade school could have had access to TED-Ed and the many other good educational channels here in YouTube and on other streaming services.

[mihirkhandkar]

The play on the "Jaws" poster at 1:38 is just outstanding! Hats off Ted Ed!

Not to mention "The Brady Bunch" at 3:36!

[frogglen]

This is so well timed because I saw a viral video of a rescued beaver making a dam using Christmas household stuff.

[elwoodzo]

I liked this a lot but I would have preferred to see some footage of actual beavers mixed with the animation which was a bit overblown at times - enough to actually detract.

[mikejohn_s]

I'm from the 3rd World country and I just wanna say thank you TED-Ed for providing us with high-quality educational videos for free!

p.s. please make more animal or history related videos, those are among my favorites topics :)

[_alc.v]

I never realized how wholesome beavers are until now. Thanks Ted Ed

[Pfaeff]

The animation reached a level of abstraction that made this harder to understand and visualize than necessary in my opinion.

[darkflix]

Water: *is too deep*

Beavers: *don't give a dam(n)*

[aflyingpotato]

I've always been interested in beavers and this video catches my attention about them even more. It's just so cool how they're able to build little fortresses for themselves.

[AvanHamaland]

The animation style reminds me a lot of Ren and Stimpy. I loved that show!

[rachelyy]

This might be my favourite TED-Ed animation to date!