ANIMALS: Rodents at Work

Last week these U.S. rodents made this news:

¶ In Mount Vernon, N.Y., a squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) scampered across high-tension wires, caused a short circuit that broke a wire which fell on oil-soaked ties, starting a fire that held up traffic on the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad for an hour.

¶ In Salmon, Idaho, five beavers (Castor canadensis) came downstream on Jesse Creek and built a dam within 100 feet of a site selected by reclamation engineers, thus stabilizing the uncertain water supply and saving the city the cost of a...

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