Canada's eager beavers build world's largest dam

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37029248/ns/technology_and_science-science/

By CHARMAINE NORONHA
Associated Press Writer
updated 7:23 p.m. ET, Fri., May 7, 2010

TORONTO - A Canadian-based ecologist said Friday that he has located the world's largest beaver dam in northwestern Canada using Google satellite technology.

Ecologist Jean Thie located the 2,788-foot (850-meter) dam using Google Earth and NASA technology while researching the rate of melting permafrost in the country's far north.

Situated in northern Alberta's Wood Buffalo National Park, which straddles the Alberta-Northwest Territories border, the dam stretches more than eight football fields long, said Thie.

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Using past images and park aerial photography, Thie concluded that the eager beavers began their work in the 1970s and that generations of the rodents have worked on it since.

"This was the work of extended families," said Thie, who is the president of EcoInformatics, a science research company.

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