Dam it: Beaver ate our internet, says tiny Canadian town of Tumbler Ridge
- Reference: 1619460133
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/04/26/beaver_ate_my_internet/
- Source link:
Beavers were the culprits in this crime against rural information distribution as they got their sizable incisors into the 4.5-inch conduit connecting the town on the edge of the Rocky Mountains in British Columbia.
[1]
According to a [2]local news outlet , service provider Telus said internet was down for about 900 customers in the community, presumably interrupting the nocturnal enjoyment of Due South or something.
Spokeswoman Liz Sauvé said in a statement that the incident was "very bizarre and uniquely Canadian" after workers discovered a beaver chewed through cabling near their dam at multiple points.
The semi-aquatic mammals, native to North America and Europe, are known for their dam building, and some have created structures more than 800m in width.
[3]
Sauvé said the beaver appears to have dug alongside the creek to reach the buried cable, which they succeeded in severing in several locations.
Photos from the site appeared to show the beavers used the material from the cabling to help create their dam-based dwellings.
What's the biggest danger to the power grid? Hackers? Terrorists? Er, squirrels [4]READ MORE
Telus said it had restored online services by mid-afternoon on Sunday, although added that mobile signal might be unreliable while repairs continued.
It's not the first time rodents have taken the blame for patchy internet service. In 2017, [5]rats were said to have caused "extensive damage" in South London by chewing through fibre, leaving customers without broadband. Sky and TalkTalk apologised for the loss of service to Tulse Hill, Balham, Brixton, Nine Elms, Streatham, Dulwich, Vauxhall, South Clapham, Forest Hill, and Battersea.
[6]
On the other side of the world, [7]rodents caused a similar outage in Auckland , New Zealand. There, an unidentified creature chomped a 144-fibre strand cable operated by Chorus affecting the Massey suburb, as well as those in Swanson, Ranui, Westgate, and parts of West Harbour. ®
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[2] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/beaver-internet-down-tumbler-ridge-1.6001594
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YIc3976pDE@xWbBXC2ef5QAAAEk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2017/01/19/biggest_danger_to_power_grid_is_squirrels/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2017/08/11/rodents_destroy_internet_in_south_london/
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[7] https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/west-auckland-internet-outage-thought-be-due-cable-chewing-rodent/
[8] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: "My cable encountered a frisky beaver and soon I experienced packet loss."
Beavers and the internet seem to go hand in uh hand.
Alternate headline...
"Beaver severs pipe, stops subscribers from admiring beavers"
Only one feed into the town?
If you only have one cable feeding the town then this is going to happen. It would be more reliable if they setup multiple feeds instead of just hoping that the one cable will never break or get eaten. On the other hand, they are out in the beautiful countryside, technology is fun but walking around and listening to the birds singing to each other in the countryside is much nicer than tweeting on the internet.
Re: Only one feed into the town?
There is probably only one road into this town. You could run multiple lines along the same roadside but they will all get taken out by a single landslide, river, flood, ice thaw-freeze
Re: Only one feed into the town?
Some cities in the north have zero roads going to them, and are only accessible during winter when lakes freeze over and can be driven on.
Re: Only one feed into the town?
It's a town of 2000 people and 900 ISP account holders were affected according to the article. It's at a Y junction of two relatively main roads looking at Google Maps, but it's basically in the middle of nowhere. They may have more than one horse there but that might be open to opinion as to whether the other one is still alive. I doubt any of the utilities have more than one feed into town.
Re: Only one feed into the town?
Between San Jose and Gilroy there is only one fiber ring. about 10 years ago that ring was cut. Land lines,cell phones, 911 and some ISP all went down
Naughty Beaver!
[1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhyCL-ELRxg
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhyCL-ELRxg
Homework excuse
Makes a change from the dog ate my homework one
rodents have a thing for gnawing on low voltage lines - my kids hamsters always dined on my speaker cable. And you try to keep the damned things from escaping.
That's why you can get cables that have peppermint and Capsaicin in them. They make them for fiber and high voltage lines
Its much more serious...
Than missing an episode of Due South. Saturday night is Hockey Night in Canada night!
Re: Its much more serious...
I've found that it's always Hockey Night in Canada.
This is a GOOD thing!
"uniquely Canadian"? Hardly.
Beaver at the confluence of James Creek and the North Fork of Big River (bottom of Seven Mile Hill on Hwy 20, between Fort Bragg and Willits in Mendocino County, CA) took out the telephone line[0] into Fort Bragg in the late '80s, effectively destroying all communications in or out for a week or so. The town now has functional redundant lines.
[0] Three poles, actually. There is no word on the crittter's opinion of pressure treated lumber.
I know this is Canada but are were sure it 's just not a crappy ISP ?
"My cable encountered a frisky beaver and soon I experienced packet loss."
^ What the headline should've been.