Vast swathes of one of Argentina’s famous landscapes – which attracts tourists from all over the world – are being ruined by beavers.
According to a report on the BBC News website, the rodents are creating “ecological havoc” on the island of Tierra del Fuego, at the southernmost extremity of South America.
The feature describes how massive artificial lakes, blocked by hundreds of dead trees gnawed down by the beavers, can be created by just two of the creatures – and there are reckoned to be 250,000 of them on the island.
The beaver was introduced from Canada in the 1940s with hopes that the move would lead to a profitable fur industry.
However, the demand for beaver fur declined rapidly, leaving the animals with no predators and as much food as they could manage. There is now officially a plague of beavers in Tierra del Fuego.
The problem is now so bad, one logging company boss tells the BBC, that beavers are now making roads impassable by chopping down trees and polluting water: “The day is going to come when they are going to be the only ones left here and we are all going to have to leave. It will become the island of the beavers.”
However, tourists are said to be very keen to see the creatures and one local travel agency is reported to be running “beaver tours” at $30 per head.
Report by Tim Gillett, News From Abroad Ltd www.newsfromabroad.com
