Beavers are doing better and better in Poland! And that is excellent news, because they are our allies in the fight against drought.

I had never heard such excited noises as those that Jorge was making. Jorge was a North American beaver and we met at his home in Puerto Williams, where I discovered from my hosts that he really likes biscuits. He was sitting on the floor, leaning against me, nibbling on biscuits and allowing himself to be stroked; the loud combination of joyful gurgles and grunts straight out of a cartoon confirmed that they were not lying. Puerto Williams is the southern-most town in the world, located on the Chilean Navarino Island, so it is easy to tell that a North American beaver was not exactly at home there. However, I’ll get back to beaver introduction in Patagonia shortly.

Timid and secretive

Beavers have always aroused my fascination, admiration and affection. As a child, I found a beaver skull in the forest and I still have it today among my treasures. As a student, I heard a story from the Białowieża Forest (in eastern Poland) about how, during some scientific conference, a group of more than 20 participants were on a walk, met a beaver in the middle of the path and, utterly unthinkingly, (they were botanists and might not have known, but still), surrounded the beaver in a circle snapping photos. The beaver, quite rightly, felt somewhat cornered and decided to bite his way to freedom, choosing as his target the leg of the least popular professor from my