Argentina’s voracious invaders: Cute, destructive beavers
They look so cute and harmless, with their furry bodies, long whiskers and buck teeth. And the tourists who flock to the southern tip of South America rejoice when they see the beavers busily building dams and gnawing through trees.
But it’s exactly that industrious, tireless work ethic that’s fast reducing forests here and alarming authorities, who have tried just about everything to stop the beavers, including a campaign to get locals to acquire a taste for beaver meat.
Now there’s even talk about hiring professional riflemen to search and destroy every last one of them, perhaps even from helicopters.