An Unlikely Climate Hero Is Making A Comeback

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A beaver swims back to its lodge underneath the frozen surface of a creek in Bozeman, Montana. … More Beavers don’t hibernate, so they spend the entire fall stockpiling wood underwater to feed through the winter. (Photo by Ronan Donovan) National Geographic / Ronan Donovan The most remarkable image in National Geographic’s upcoming feature isn’t what you might expect. It’s not a lion on the savannah or a polar bear on retreating ice. It’s a beaver—swimming beneath a frozen pond. A single shot, years in the making, quietly captures one of the most important comeback stories in North American ecology. To get it, photographer Ronan Donovan and photo engineer Tom O’Brien had to build a custom underwater camera rig, designed to function beneath ice in shallow, silty water. “Shooting underwater is hard enough,” said O’Brien. “Shooting under the ice is even harder. Ronan had to photograph beavers in their habitat, near their dens, which raised so many issues—from silt being disturbed to keeping all the equipment powered for long periods in freezing temperatures. Everything had to be robust, waterproof, and reconfigurable.” The result: a breathtaking view few humans have ever seen—and a visual symbol of a species that may hold the key to environmental resilience. From Pest to Partner Beavers were once everywhere across North America. Then came the fur trade. Hunted nearly to extinction for their pelts, they were later branded a nuisance for flooding farmland and chewing through timber. By the early 20th century, their numbers had dropped dramatically. But today, they’re back—10 to 15 million of them, according to recent estimates. And now, they’re being recognized not as pests, but as partners in ecological repair. Beavers build dams. That much is well known. But those dams do more than create ponds. They slow the flow of water,…