Are the beavers good nature conservationists? – new publication

Hungarian beaver researchers have revealed details of the Eurasian beaver's carving strategy, which will help us understand how this returning ecosystem engineer is transforming our waterfronts. It prefers to eat and cut native willows and poplars - the very species that should be the focus of conservation efforts. This is one of the findings of experts who have recently published a major contribution to the understanding of the species' foraging and tree-eating habits. The beaver researchers stressed that the effect of chewing may depend on the water availability of the habitat and can lead to one of two outcomes: either it can kill the tree or cause it to sprout intensively. Continuing their previous research, they have now shifted their focus from larger rivers to small watercourses and summarized and statistically evaluated the results of their field observations at 11 sampling sites Erika Juhász, PhD student of the ELTE Department of Plant Systematics, Ecology and Theoretical Biology led the research. Ákos Bede-Fazekas, senior lecturer of our department was a co-last-author of the publication. The article was published in a prestigious (Q1) scientific journal entitled Biodiversity and Conservation.