From SimaL@aol.com Sat Mar 2 07:21:21 1996 Return-Path: Received: from mx3.u.washington.edu by lists.u.washington.edu (5.65+UW96.02/UW-NDC Revision: 2.33 ) id AA20488; Sat, 2 Mar 96 07:21:20 -0800 Received: from emout08.mx.aol.com by mx3.u.washington.edu (5.65+UW96.01/UW-NDC Revision: 2.33 ) id AA18245; Sat, 2 Mar 96 07:21:18 -0800 Received: by emout08.mail.aol.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) id KAA05045 for consbio@u.washington.edu; Sat, 2 Mar 1996 10:21:55 -0500 Date: Sat, 2 Mar 1996 10:21:55 -0500 From: SimaL@aol.com Message-Id: <960302102154_158133165@emout08.mail.aol.com> To: consbio@u.washington.edu Subject: Beavers in Chile: Article from Reuter's This points out, yet again, the serious risk of importation of live animals into countries outside of their native range-- a disaster waiting to happen. We continue to do it here in the U.S., for the pet trade and other markets, with indifference to the potential risks. By Margaret Orgill ESTANCIA VICUNA, Chile, Feb 29 (Reuter) - In North America they are admired for their industry, buck teeth and all around cuteness. Here at the southern tip of South America, they are: THE PLAGUE THAT CAN'T BE STOPPED. Jose Luis Garcinuno drives his pickup truck down a dirt track through the cool, pristine beech forests on the island of Tierra del Fuego. Suddenly a wasteland of dead trees, stagnant pools and fallen logs opens up on every side. ``It's the beavers again,'' said Garcinuno, a forestry engineer, pointing to the mass of neatly chiseled trunks littering a riverbank. The descendants of 26 pairs brought from Canada in the 1940s by fur breeders are running riot in the backwoods of this island at the southern tip of Latin America and officials are unsure what, if anything, they can do about it. ``Beavers are a plague. They are creating an important imbalance in the environment,'' said Ander Uriarte, forestry engineer at Chile's National Environment Commission. ``They are causing significant damage to forests throughout Tierra del Fuego and neighbouring islands.'' Even greater damage could happen if the animals manage to spread to the mainland across the Straits of Magellan -- a dire prospect for Chilean environmentalists and forestry companies. On Tierra del Fuego's remote southern slopes, the beavers, a symbol of the vast boreal forests of North America, have gnawed away at the unique Andean beech woodlands. Lack of predators allowed the animals to spread across the island and more recently they have crossed by swimming or clinging to floating logs -- no one knows exactly how -- to nearby Navarino and other islands, and possibly the mainland. One area of sparsely-populated Tierra del Fuego, which is shared between Chile and Argentina, has so many colonies of the animal that locals have dubbed it Valle de los Castores -- Valley of the Beavers. One problem is getting locals to view these furry, industrious animals as the plague that officials feel they are. ``Just because they are pretty animals, unlike rats, people don't think beavers are a pest,'' said Gonzalo Sainz, head of the regional tourist board in Punta Arenas. Tierra del Fuego's windswept plains and thickly forested mountains are home to a rich variety of native wildlife including flamingos, foxes and guanaco, a cousin of the llama. Unfortunately for local wildlife officials, none of these animals hunt beavers, unlike in North America where bears help keep their numbers down. ``As beavers live in remote areas, there is nothing to disturb them and they live completely freely,'' said Uriarte. Prized for their glossy caramel-coloured pelts, the first animals were brought by fur breeders to a farm in the Argentine sector of the island in 1946. The business folded within a few years and the beavers escaped or were abandoned. With no natural predators, an agreeable cool climate similar to their native lands and miles (kms) of untouched forest, the beavers had found paradise. Their numbers exploded, said Sainz. There are reports the animals have crossed the Straits of Magellan to the mainland, with potentially devastating consequences for the region's environment, say experts. ``The spread of beaver northward along the Andes in Chile into areas with much higher stream densities could signify a major ecological disaster in southern South America,'' said a report commissioned by U.S. forestry company Trillium and carried out by a team of scientists led by University of Chile biologist Mary Kalin Arroyo. Along riverbanks in Trillium's land, beavers had damaged between 25 and 75 percent of the trees, said the report. But the report noted lower densities on the Argentine side, where beavers are more often hunted than in Chile, and that densities on both sides of the border were lower than in the animals' natural habitat in Canada. The long-toothed mammals fell trees to dam streams, creating still-water pools where they build their nests. As soon as the water level rises the dams cause flooding which drowns trees growing close to the riverbanks. They also kill young saplings by nibbling at their bark and shoots. ``We definitely have a problem with the beavers and it's under study,'' said Gordon Thompson, the head of operations at Trillium. The Bellingham, Washington-based company, which owns a vast area of virgin forest on the island, is starting a controversial project this year to log and manage the woodlands. Scientists have said their only hope is to contain the beavers on the land they have already invaded. They saw no chance of eradicating them. ``There are so many beavers that trapping is not a realistic option as more would just come across from the other side of the island,'' said Thompson. ``Any local attempt to eradicate the beaver will be largely futile,'' despaired the Trillium report, adding the company ``should explore humane ways to control the beaver population.'' 22:06 02-28-96 .