A colony of beavers knocked out Internet service on Saturday for residents of the small Canadian town of Tumbler Ridge, a few hours of northeast of Prince George, British Columbia. The animals had chewed through underground fiber optic cables and it took more than a day for the Telus telecommunications company to locate and conduct the repair which required digging deep into frozen ground. From CNN:
"This was certainly a very rare and uniquely Canadian disruption," Telus spokeswoman Liz Sauvé said in an email to CNN.
The cable was buried about three feet underground and enclosed in a 4.5-inch thick conduit for protection, but that didn't stop the beavers, who chewed through the conduit and then the cable in several locations, according to a statement from Telus.
The beavers used some of the material they dug up — including bright red fiber marking tape — in the construction of their dam, the company said.
image: Tellus
