Ulaanbaatar is importing foreign
experts to combat falling water levels in Mongolia”s third longest river.
Qualifications include sharp incisors, flat tails and webbed toes.

Meet the Eurasian beaver (Castor
fiber). If all goes according to plan, the task of restoring the headwaters of
the Tuul River will be left to these rotund rodents, with extra thanks to
Germany and Russia. At home, due to poaching, their numbers have declined
sharply in the past 20 years. But in May, Germany gifted 14, and Russia another
30—just for this special task.

With their sharp, ever-growing
teeth, beavers fell trees and build dams to flood areas for protection from
predators. Many scientists believe beavers can contribute to river ecosystem
regeneration and restoration because their natural dams help maintain river
levels during dry spells, while the flooded areas help nourish the soil and
promote plant growth.

“Beavers are diplomats of the
environment,” says Delgermaa Yunger, director of the Nature Protection
Agency’s office at Ulaanbaatar’s City Hall. The agency is in charge of the
beaver introduction program. Water levels in the Tuul have been declining since
the late 1990″s, she says. A 2003 survey conducted by the City Council revealed
22 of 72 tributaries of the Tuul had dried up. Sections of the riverbed often
dry out each spring.

“Fifty to 60 percent of Mongolia”s
population lives along the Tuul. It”s a very important river and we have to do
what we can to make sure we protect it for the future. The beavers will be the
cheapest and most effective natural method,” says Yunger.

According to her office, one billion
tugriks (about $740,000) have been earmarked for the project. The plan is to
breed the beavers from Germany in captivity. Sixteen of the Russian beavers –
which are better adapted to cold Siberian winters – were released into special
zones along the headwaters of the Tuul in early August. They will be monitored
and provided food and shelter if required, Yunger says.

Beavers are no strangers to
Mongolia. A rare indigenous sub-species of the Eurasian beaver known as Castor
fiber birulai inhabits the Bulgan River in Hovd Province in the west. But if
the project is successful, this will be the first beaver colony on the Tuul. A
previous introduction attempt in 1984 failed, says Samjaa Ravchig, an animal
expert at the National University of Mongolia.

In 1984, a Mongolian prime minister
was so impressed with Canadian beavers during a trip to North America that he
ordered four beavers from the Bulgan River to be released into the Tuul. None
survived. “There was probably little scientific backing [for the project].
The beavers were probably too few and couldn”t breed with each other,”
says Ravchig, who has been studying the Bulgan beavers since 1974.

Ravchig was invited to head the
scientific team overseeing the current beaver introduction project. The
government”s willingness to spend money on natural rehabilitation was a welcome
opportunity for him. “It was like a star in the day sky,” he says. He
believes beavers are more appropriate than artificial dykes or dams and will
pose no threat to local wildlife. “The vegetation along the Tuul
headwaters is well suited to beavers.”

Citing a beaver reintroduction
project in Bavaria, he cautions this is a long-term project with little hope
for immediate success. “They hunted their last beaver in Bavaria in the
1960s. After they re-introduced beavers from Russia in 1966, it still took
nearly 10 years for the beavers to successfully adapt and build their dams,” he
says.

Today, Bavarian beavers are exported
across Europe, to areas where the animals had been hunted to near extinction,
for reintroduction programs. In Mongolia, following the Communist collapse in
1991, the Bulgan River sub-species were poached till numbers plummeted to about
1,000, says Ravchig. While the population is making a comeback, it”s still
listed as critically endangered in the Mongolian Red Book—a reason why these
indigenous beavers were not deployed for this experiment.

In Yunger”s office at the City
Council, a furry artificial flower sits among her pens on her desk. “It”s
beaver fur,” she admits sheepishly—a gift from a beaver farm in Russia she
visited while scouting for donors. But this, she insists, will never happen in
Mongolia, because local community support for the project will deter illegal
hunting. “These beavers are strictly here to help restore our
rivers,” she said.

http://www.eurasianet.org