Beavers To The Rescue Of Russian Village

In defiance of local planning laws - and in spite of the scale of the task confronting them - a rogue band of beavers has intervened to rescue the inhabitants of a remote Russian village.

For at least a decade residents of the aptly-named village of Bobrovka - which translates as "village of the beavers" - had petitioned the local administration to build them a new dam, after the previous, ageing Soviet construction was washed away.

With no dam they were left with no reservoir, which meant nowhere for firefighters to draw water in an emergency and difficult watering crops in times of drought.

Living about 20 miles (about 30 km) from the nearest town in the Ural mountains in Siberia, villagers said they were left feeling isolated and vulnerable.

But when the local authorities failed to act, the resident rodents took matters into their own paws.

Working mainly at night under cover of darkness, and using materials apparently borrowed from their local habitat, a determined family of beavers set about the construction.

A local tracker, Alexander Grigoryev, praised the quality of their work.

"If people don't break this dam, it's going to be here forever. It's very solid, it can't be ruined by a storm or spring flooding," he said.

The beavers, he added, would bring other benefits too.

"Where beavers live, all other wild animals settle, fish come, ducks nest. Beavers feed on wood, they are very useful animals."

But officials warned the new dam did not meet building regulations and could be subject to demolition.

Speaking on behalf of the local administration, Sergey Brezhnev said: "If we build our dam and demolish this one, it doesn’t mean that the beavers will die.

"The river is quite big and they have plenty of space to build a new dam somewhere else."

None of the beavers was available to comment.