Outwit Hardworking Beavers
Beavers have been integrated into our lives for centuries. Sayings such as “busy as a beaver,” “eager beaver,” and “leave it to beaver” (OK, I might be stretching here) all come from the apparent industriousness of beavers. The Greek word kas tor, which means “one who excels,” is probably the root for the beaver’s genus Castor. The provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta use the beaver in their official seals. Oregon is the Beaver State. Beaver lore abounds in Native American cultures. Even Aesop had a story about how a beaver saved itself, although the story is not for gentle ears.
The beaver has played many roles on the North American continent. Its meat, fur, and castoreum were used by Native Americans for thousands of years before the beaver became one of the principal financial sources that funded the exploration and colonization of the continent by the Europeans. Today, after near extinction by the fur trade, beavers have made a dramatic comeback. They have repopulated much of their historic range, to the point that now, in many places, the beaver has become a pest with a propensity for chewing trees, building dams in unwanted places, and digging into man-made ponds.
A Brief Natural History
is a rodent. It is a member of a larger order that includes gophers, kangaroo rats, and pocket mice, and it’s the second largest in body size behind capybaras. Fossil evidence
