#13
The Globe and Mail (Canada)
January 22, 2002
Tough Canadians shut out feeble Russians
This winter, a cherished symbol of Canada is rolling through Europe with a vengeance
By GEOFFREY YORK

MOSCOW -- They munched their way through Finland and Sweden. They flooded the remote forests of Tierra del Fuego. Now the Canadian beavers are invading Russia -- and the Russians are nervous.

Like a science experiment gone awry, the march of transplanted Canadian beavers across the northern tip of Europe is advancing inexorably southward, ousting Russia's native beaver population and creating fears of damage to forests and farms.

Russian scientists say their country has become the world's only battleground between Canadian and European beavers. So far, Canada's national symbol is winning.

"Day by day, the European beavers are pushed to the southeast, and Canadian beavers are pushing them out," complained Maxim Sinitsyn, an ecologist at the Institute for Evolution and Ecology, which belongs to the Russian Academy of Sciences.

"It could create a very acute problem. It is an invasion by a species not typical of Europe, and their pressure is forcing out the European species and changing the ecosystem. The European environment is not ready for the activity of Canadian beavers."

The Canadian beavers, he says, were introduced in the 1950s and 60s into Finland and Sweden, where no native beaver population existed. With no natural predators, they swiftly expanded their area.

Beginning about 25 years ago, they spread from Finland into the northern Russian region of Karelia, where they continued to expand. Up to 20,000 Canadian beavers are believed to be thriving in northwestern Russia today, and scientists predict they will soon march further south, rudely shoving out European beavers as they go.

Canadian beavers are historically a younger species than their European cousins, Mr. Sinitsyn said.

"The Canadian beavers have more stamina and flexibility, they are more active and they can survive better."

One of the main differences between the two is that Canadian beavers build dams -- sometimes huge structures up to hundreds of metres in length -- while European beavers generally don't.

As a result, the Canadian beavers are changing the Russian ecology in unpredictable ways.

"They cause a flood in the surrounding territory, and the flatter the landscape, the wider is the zone of influence," fretted Alexander Rusanov, director of a Russian environmental foundation.

Scientists are worried the beavers could damage Russian canals and farms, changing the composition of rivers, threatening commercial forests and even perhaps stealing vegetables from farmland.

They acknowledge, however, that the beavers could have positive effects. In areas that have become dried out by logging, beavers can help restore wetlands, creating havens for animals and resting spots for migrating birds.

Beavers became extinct in most parts of Europe centuries ago. Now Russia has become the first zone of direct contact between large numbers of European and Canadian beavers, Mr. Sinitsyn said. "Karelia is the only transition zone in all of Europe."

This isn't the first time the furry Canadian rodent has provoked foreign anxieties. In 1946, Argentina imported 25 pairs from Canada to help the fur industry in Tierra del Fuego. By the 1990s, the original 25 pairs had multiplied to 50,000 on the Argentinian side. Their dams were flooding forests and roads, eroding farmland and creating alarm among scientists who feared the beavers would swim to the South American mainland and take over the Andean forests.

In Finland, Canadian beavers have caused heavy damage to commercial forestry in some regions, with dams flooding forests and killing valuable trees.

Other countries have been quick to guard against the Canadian beast. When an English wildlife trust decided last year to reintroduce beavers in wetlands (almost 1,000 years after beavers became extinct there), it deliberately chose the European beaver. One British newspaper sniffed that the Canadian beavers were "uncivilized brutes."