As drought tightens its grip on Slovakia, one unlikely ally is quietly transforming the landscape.
April 2026 will go down in history as the driest April since rainfall records began in 1881. In some parts of Slovakia there was literally nothing to measure – not a single drop of rain fell.
The headlines spread across the country, but meaningful solutions have been slow to appear. Yet one remarkable animal could help people cope with this growing crisis.
The Eurasian beaver, once hunted to extinction here, is making a comeback and has become a major talking point across Europe. Scientists and ordinary people alike are watching not only the return of the animal itself, but also the transformation of the landscape into something resembling the world before intensive human intervention.
According to researcher Ondrej Kameniar, beavers provide the countryside with an astonishing range of benefits.
