We appreciate wildlife for plenty of reasons, but it’s rare that we take a moment to admire their natural technical abilities. These animals may never have taken a statistics class or used CAD software, but they use their own special skillsets to shape their habitats–earning them a place in the special category of species called “ecosystem engineers.”
Beavers: Building Healthy Floodplains
Have you ever wondered, dam, why do beavers build their houses like that? There are a lot of reasons.
Beaver dams provide protection from predators and deter other wildlife from sniffing around the beavers’ food. When built across rivers and streams, dams work exactly like our big concrete dams: they block water from passing, causing the water level to rise. A little downstream from the dam, the family of beavers (also called a colony) will build what looks like a larger dam, but is actually a lodge with a small island inside- a dry, underground habitat, right in the middle of the river! In between the dam and the lodge, the water level is higher, providing the beaver with an aquatic pantry to store fish in. In building their dream homes, beavers completely alter the riverscape.
Why is this so important? By rearranging the ecosystem, these freshwater fabricators are expanding the river’s floodplain (read more about why natural floodplains are so important here!). Beaver ponds can raise groundwater levels, keep soils moist during droughts, prevent flash flooding and even improve water quality. Beavers can be a nuisance to traditional forms of infrastructure, from accidentally flooding septic systems to intentionally plugging up culverts. However, a goal of riverine natural infrastructure is often widening a floodplain–basically, beavers are the original natural infrastructure engineers.
Fun fact: The school mascot of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (or MIT) is the beaver, chosen specifically for its engineering prowess.
Tapirs: Creating Diverse Forests
With only four recognized species worldwide, tapirs have a long evolutionary history and a big job to do.
Namely, these long-nosed landscapers are excellent at moving quickly through dense forest vegetation, dispersing seeds throughout the forest as they go. Tapirs are not particularly picky, and eat just about any plant they come across. When they digest and, ahem, release the seeds of these plants back into the environment, they are contributing to the spatial diversity of the plant landscape.
While they’re not known for being particularly graceful, their trampling of the soil actually contributes to this plant growth, and is also a major contribution to nitrogen cycling in their environment. Although tapirs are a threatened group in both the Americas and Southeast Asia, few species are known to be capable of this level of seed dispersal.
Fun fact: Tapirs have been around for over 55 million years with very few physiological changes, with very stable dietary and habitat preferences.
Armadillos: Expanding Desert Neighborhoods
The U.S. has only one species of these armored mammals– the nine-banded armadillo– and they are often thought of as pests when they dig their burrows in agricultural fields, backyards and golf courses. Despite their shy nature, they’re actually creating important habitat for all kinds of neighbors.
Armadillo burrows are highly specific: they include a perfectly round opening, a drop of a couple of feet, and a long den. These dens are used to help the bulbous builders stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer. But a number of other species, from bobcats to frogs to skunks, benefit from the added real estate as well. Some species, like groundhogs, take over burrows and adapt them to their own uses, while others use old burrows to store food or hunt nearby. Similar behavior has been observed with gopher and desert tortoise burrows, but armadillos don’t often get the same credit for their design capabilities.
This ability is not unique to U.S. armadillos; a number of studies have focused on the Giant armadillos of South America, who create similar burrows but can dig over five meters (16 feet) deep.
Fun fact: Armadillos are mostly nocturnal and sleep up to 16 hours a day, and while they rarely share their burrows with other armadillos, they may take on tortoise, snake, and rat roommates.
Water Buffalo: Conserving Wetlands Worldwide
As you may have guessed, water buffalos are native to river deltas and marshes, originating in mainland Southeast Asia and with herds all over the world today. Wherever they go, they’re having a major impact on wetlands.
They’re similarly effective for agriculture as cows or oxen, but are far more suited to riverine and wetland habitats than other bovines. With population estimates of over 200 million worldwide, both domestic and feral buffalo have a notable reputation for their ability to create mosaics of biodiverse habitat through grazing, trampling and compacting soil, and spreading seeds and nutrients in their dung. Several rewilding projects around the world are utilizing these conservationist cattle to encourage plant growth, nutrient cycling and recruitment of other wildlife. Water buffalo as we know them today (Bubalus bubalis) come from a long evolutionary line, and are often considered suitable alternatives for many species of now-extinct megafauna, even in areas where they aren’t native.
(Read more about how water buffalo are helping rewilding efforts in Europe here!)
Fun fact: Water buffalo in Turkey’s Kizilirmak Delta have a unique symbiotic relationship with tiny frogs: up to 20 of these opportunist amphibians may be found at once hitching a ride on the back of a single buffalo!
Wild Boars: Farming and Feisty
These piggies are one of the most widespread mammals on Earth, and are most well known for their huge invasive impacts in almost every ecosystem they go to. But the skill that helps feral hogs destroy other habitats is exactly that’s important in their native ranges: these strategic swine are highly effective agriculturalists.
Wild boars are tough and determined. When they forage, they essentially act as sentient plows: disturbing the soil layer, breaking up leaf litter and vegetation, spreading seeds and allowing seedlings to establish in the tilled ground. They also spend a lot of time digging, creating wallows (shallow pools) that can be utilized by other species like frogs.
Although the impact of wild boars is largely negative, they are one of the most far-reaching ecosystem engineers in the world. While their foraging activities can cause major harm in some ecosystems, studies have also found that wild boars can actually help increase biodiversity in nutrient-poor ecosystems (read more here and here!).
Fun fact: Wild boars have a keen sense of smell, are excellent swimmers, and can run up to 30 miles an hour– but their eyesight isn’t very good.
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