KNOWLEDGE BASE

With up to 300 million receptors, a dog's nose is incredibly sensitive. Dogs can help in tasks such as detecting cancer or narcotics. This book showcases various working dogs, including dogs which were being trained for distinguishing between the native Eurasian and the invasive North American beaver in Finland. Please note, this resource is not open-access.

This book chapter discusses the role that beavers play in healthy river ecosystems in the USA. Beavers support diverse predator communities and regulate plant growth. Ecology aside, the text also briefly describes the reasons why beavers were over-hunted in the USA: their fur was an important export to Europe in the 1800s. The chapter mentions the damage that livestock can do to riverside ecosystems and discusses restoration strategies.

This study analysed almost 100 real-world beaver restoration projects in the western USA. It found most projects did not consider beaver genetics, disease, or human conflict; most did not undertake any post-release monitoring. Overall, the research on best practice for such projects is not being matched by projects in practice: the authors suggested that additional guidelines should be written up to help improve the situation.

This article discussed various pests like flies, lice, fleas, and bugs: their impact on animal health and methods for control. It emphasised early detection and integrated pest management. The text describes how both species of modern-day beaver host a type of parasite called the 'beaver beetle.'

In this document, scientists showed how thermal imaging can help confirm the presence of active beaver colonies. However, pre-existing survey methods, such as tracking, led to different results. The text discussed how best to use this thermal imaging method for surveying beaver colonies. In Figure 1, it also shows what a beaver lodge looks like in a thermal image!