Two dead beavers were found on the road between the villages of Milevo and Mirovo in the Plovdiv municipality of Sadovo.
The presence of the endangered rodents near the Maritsa River surprised both local people and nature lovers who came across the bodies of the animals.
The representatives of the water-loving species were taken by specialists for examination. The animals and initial samples will be provided for analysis by a team from the National Museum of Natural History in Sofia. Beavers are an endangered species.
The population was partially restored along the Danube 5 years ago. Their spread in Southern Bulgaria, near the Maritsa River, is considered a sensation even by specialists – zoologists and biodiversity researchers.
According to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nedko Nedyalkov from the Paleontological Museum in Asenovgrad, the area in which they were found is an atypical habitat for beavers. And the bodies are of adult individuals, weighing about 20 kilograms, which can have offspring.
The unusual find has aroused great interest in scientific circles. One version is that the beavers, which are active at night, accidentally found themselves on the road after escaping from a private zoo. Another hypothesis is that a population that has been hidden for years is now changing its habitat due to the high water levels of the rivers.