How Beavers Built a Dam Longer Than the Hoover Dam

Beavers are some of nature's most incredible architects. Their dams are some of the most impressive feats of animal engineering and today, I'm going to share with you why.

Sources:

Select videos courtesy of Getty Images

Written by Madeleine Daniell
Animations by Vincent De Langen
Editing by Jose Gamez

[nerdisaur]

I’m Canadian so beaver induced ecosystems was a science unit every year 😂😂 glad more people can appreciate how awesome and hardworking they are!

[AlisterPuddifer]

"I did find a Daily Mail article which was as sensationalized and disrespectful as all of their other articles."

OooH DAM!

[mitchkelleher]

I have them on my property. Thanks to them, I effectively have a moat made up of ponds around my place that is filled with all kinds of animals from snapping turtles to great blue herons. About 1/2 km away, there's a set of double dams, the longer of which is maybe 100 meters, making up 3-tiers of water, which I imagine they did so that the dam wouldn't have to be too tall to reliably hold up. The lodge the beavers who built that one have is like a beaver Thunderdome—rising over 2 meters out of the water. Near my driveway bridge over the "moat", is a smaller lodge and a dam nearby I occasionally have to knock holes in to control flooding (they built this one downstream of two previous ones we had cheaters installed in—they can't beat the cheat, so they just build downstream). From trying to deconstruct it, I came to be really impressed by the engineering. They use Y-shaped sticks they embed into the downstream river bottom with the top of the Y used to hold the lateral members, which they weave and interlock before filling gaps with vegetation and mud. It takes a lot of work to put some holes in it, which they repair overnight. Good thing is that the high side tends to drain down and equalize with the low side fast enough that I don't have to bother them again for a while. Some people hate them for the flooding they can cause, but I respect their engineering capabilities and the environmental benefits and they made this property a very nice place to be.

[PurooRoy]

When I see the beaver tail it always reminds me of that scene from Phineas and Ferb where a beaver and Perry give each other a hi five with their tails.

[mitab]

"If beavers creat a dating app it will be called Timber" best thing i've heard ever

[eledelapido]

Question 1: Can you get to India through north america? *No, but at least there's beaver*

[sergeantpanther]

Beavers: *Build a dam longer than Hoover Dam*

NCR and Legion: Allow us to introduce ourselves.

[rudrakharwa]

Damn those beavers are making huge dams and they are even bigger than the Hoover damn

[Joseph-xjex]

I've always been fascinated with beavers. They're animals, just like us, and build super cool structures, again just like us.

[Enelkay.]

what a great video, thank you so much

[princetandukar]

*Humans builds something: Extinction for all other creatures
*Beavers build something: Salvation for all other creatures

[Maclman]

Yea more people need to watch these : such high quality, very edu-taining

[Ottoisthebest]

First video in a long time that I enjoyed and watched through without skipping a bit. Congrats!!!!

[milseq]

I swear the Half As Interesting guy comentates on every single channel like this.

[dawidwojacki]

Beavers are cute, intelligent, environment friendly and are my favourite animals

[cgyoboi]

America: we built the biggest dam!
China: no we did!
Beavers: amateurs

[FortuitusVideo]

It wasn't actually the colonists that hunted the beavers. It was actually the natives. The colonists paid a lot if money for every pelt, but it was the natives.

[Pillzpop]

BioArk: *Talks about beavers*

Canadians: Allow us to introduce ourselves.

[PhilipPetrunak]

Bever simulator sounds like a fun game.

[ON-YT]

*That's the power of Canadian Engineering*