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In 1946, the government of Argentina imported 50 North American beavers into Tierra del Fuego. The goal was simple. Officials hoped to establish a profitable fur trade in the remote southern forests, copying what had worked for centuries in North America. The plan collapsed almost immediately. After World War II, global demand for beaver fur dropped, fashion trends shifted, and the region proved too isolated and expensive to support trapping and export. The project was quietly abandoned, but the animals were never removed. With no natural predators and vast untouched forest, the beavers spread freely, building dams in ecosystems that had never evolved to withstand them. Today, their numbers are estimated at around 200,000, and their dams have flooded valleys and wiped out large stretches of native forest. Scientists estimate that over 39 million acres across southern Argentina and Chile are now at risk. What began as a small economic experiment has turned into one of the most damaging invasive species problems in the Southern Hemisphere. #archaeohistories