- TIERRA DEL FUEGO, Argentina
(Reuters) - The Great Beaver Plague, as some furious locals call it, began
in 1946 with the same good but misguided intentions that have presaged
countless other ecological disasters.
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- That year, Argentina's former military government imported
25 pairs of beavers from Canada, hoping they would multiply and create
a fur industry among the forests on this large island at the very tip of
South America.
Multiply they did. But the fur trade never quite caught on, and there were
no natural predators. So today there are tens of thousands of beavers wreaking
havoc across Tierra del Fuego -- felling trees, damming up rivers and stirring
scandal among the humans as they butt heads over how to solve the problem.
"The beavers are an enormous headache, a plague, and the worst part
is that nobody can agree on a solution," said Adriana Guillen, head
of the local wildlife department.
The debate has pitted ecologists against animal rights activists, and government
officials against each other. Stuck in the middle are tourism companies,
who are turning the creatures into a side trip for a booming number of
foreigners putting in to port on luxury cruises to nearby Antarctica.
On one recent evening, when the sun didn't fade until well after midnight,
a guide took a small group to the edge of a small marsh littered with gnawed,
fallen trees.
After a good 15 minutes waiting in silence, the water rippled and an overgrown
beaver churned through the pond.
"Look! I saw a beaver!" shrieked a Belgian tourist, jumping up
and down in delight as her boyfriend snapped photos.
At the end of the night, the tourists huddled around a fire and ate a homemade
stew -- made of beef. "You're not eating beaver," the guide assured
them, to a round of laughter. The total cost for the four-hour trip ran
at about $40 (21 pounds).
BEAVER TOURS, MEAT, HANDBAGS
Nobody knows how many "beaver tourists" there have been so far,
but the recent interest has rekindled a debate that has raged for years:
by what means, and to what extent should the beaver population be controlled.
In his famous 1977 travel book "In Patagonia", the British writer
Bruce Chatwin was nearly stuck in a swamp created by the misplaced animals.
"This 'beaver tourism' is a scandal," Guillen said. "The
beavers need to be controlled, not idealised. They're ruining the environment."
The local government offers hunters about $1.50 for every beaver they kill,
and every week somebody shows up with a truckload of bloody tails as proof
of their work. But the bounty is so low that the hunting has little effect.
Another dark episode in Tierra del Fuego's past has ruled out more creative
solutions. In 1900, immigrants brought in European rabbits -- which then
did what they are known for. That prompted settlers to introduce the fox,
which then hunted sheep on nearby farms and ravaged the local economy.
"It's a more difficult problem to solve than you might think,"
laughed Julio Lovece, tourism secretary in the nearby town of Ushuaia.
"Some people say the beaver is a plague. But I say humans do much
more damage!"
Paintings of beavers hang in Lovece's office, and can be found in restaurants
and hotels all over Ushuaia. Meanwhile, a new ski resort nearby is named
"Beaver Mountain," and some local entrepreneurs have just this
month begun producing hats and gloves made from beavers.
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- The consumption of beaver is technically prohibited,
but if a tourist meets the right people he or she can get a small plastic
container filled with marinated meat and onions. Beaver meat is grainy
and tough, and tastes a lot like deer.
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- Tito Baserga, a local guide, has started a business with
his wife aimed at exporting beaver meat, key chains and wallets, since
Argentine products are dirt-cheap in dollars following a recent economic
crisis.
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- "I want people to love the beavers, but not so much
that they can't be exploited. My wife and I want to live off the beavers,"
said Baserga. "Besides -- the fact they're here in Tierra del Fuego
really isn't their fault, is it?"
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