Beavers are among the most remarkable animals living in Masuria (the Masurian Lake District). They are genuinely capable of reshaping the landscape around them.
Their work is easy to recognise: gnawed trunks, small dams and the floodplains that appear along watercourses.
Beavers build their lodges from branches, mud and timber. In doing so they create small bodies of water in which new life quickly begins to appear.
This is precisely why naturalists call them “engineers of the ecosystem”. Their labour shapes the plants, insects, birds and other animals around them.
In many places across Masuria the traces of beaver activity can be found on an ordinary walk. Sometimes it is enough to step down towards a small ditch or a quieter stretch of bank.
The most distinctive sign is a trunk that looks as though someone had sharpened it with an enormous pencil sharpener.
Beavers are a fine reminder that the Masurian wilderness is forever changing and lives by its own rhythm.