somebody has to do it!

I'm not sure if this means that they are annoyed or if they use it as an indicator that there is something to do.

Actually, I don't even know that you have to do that much I've seen videos of beavers in captivity seemingly trying to build a dam on dry land

Did you possibly read it in the comment immediately above yours which was posted 1 minute prior to yours, and then attribute it to an ancient memory?

Yes, that's likely the inspiration for this copycat.

It goes into the how but did they explain the why? Maybe I missed it somewhere

Edit: they're just really particular about the way their water flows

That awesome! Thanks for the article great read.

"Beavers are 40-to-80-pound [18-to-36 kilogram] smelly bags of meat with really short legs"

You should have an option to crosspost it somewhere on the post. Or you could simply copy the direct image link and make a new post using that. Lemmy recognises crossposts by checking if the link is the same. For example if 2 unrelated users make 2 different posts with the same article it will count as a crosspost.

The lodge is generally in the middle of the flooded area after they dam it or on the shore in a burrow with the entrance under water deep enough that ice won't freeze if shut if there's not enough water. They don't tend to live in the dam itself. They use all the water to protect themselves.

It should be noted that, aside from petty human concerns like flooded roads and properties, beavers are much better at controlling flooding and generally protecting ecologies than humans.

Saw a thing once, maybe Mythbusters, that showed how beavers are attracted to the sound of running water and want to stop it. In the show, they got the beaver to dam a speaker by playing river/stream noises through it.