Canada: A Canadian ecologist has discovered the world’s largest beaver dam in a remote area of northern Alberta, an animal-made structure. The dam is so large that it is visible from space.
Researcher Jean Thie said that he used satellite imagery and Google Earth software to locate the dam, which is about 850 metres (2,800 feet) long on the southern edge of Wood Buffalo National Park. Average beaver dams in Canada are 10 to 100 metres long, and only rarely do they reach 500 metres.
First discovered in October 2007, the gigantic dam is located in a virtually inaccessible part of the park south of Lac Claire, about 190 kilometres (120 miles) northeast of Fort McMurray. “Several generations of beavers worked on it and it’s still growing,” he told AFP in Ottawa.
Thie said he recently identified two smaller dams sprouting at either side of the main dam. In 10 years, all three structures could merge into a mega-dam measuring just short of a kilometer in length, he said.
Source: Google
