Animals Directory

Archive for the ‘Beaver info’ Category

Beavers (genus Castor) are a group of semi-aquatic rodents native to North America and Eurasia are characterized by their broad, scaly tails. American (Castor canadensis), the European beaver (Castor fiber) and Kellog beaver (Castor californicus), the latter become extinct since the Pleistocene. All of them live exclusively in the Northern Hemisphere, except some American beavers came to the South American region of Tierra del Fuego to be introduced there.

These animals are known for their natural ability to build dams in rivers and streams and their homes, called dens, in ponds that are created due to the blockade of the dam on the stream. For the construction of these structures, mainly used tree trunks to build with their powerful incisors. Despite the large number of trees felled, beavers do not usually harm the ecosystem in which they live, however, keep you healthy, because their dams provide a variety of benefits, among other things, these barriers to encourage the creation Wetlands help control flooding and remove pollutants from the stream. However, in ecosystems strange to them, these changes can be harmful to the environment, as happened, for example, introduced beavers in Tierra del Fuego and the Spanish regions of Navarra and La Rioja.

For hundreds of years, the Beavers are part of popular culture and in some cases have had a great influence on the development of human societies. An example of this is its importance in the European colonization of America, as the search of their skins was one of the factors that drove the exploration and subsequent economic development of North America. This was due to the commercial value of their skins and other products derived from them, as castoreum. It is also a very representative of the culture of Canada, to the extent that is the national animal of that country. Therefore, the influence of beavers is not limited to economic and commercial sector, it also covers areas as diverse as literature, religion and sports.