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The country we know of as Canada was founded on the backs (literally) of these water-loving mammals, whose thick pelts were a staple in the fur trade with Europe. Take a look at our fascinating facts, and then use this trivia to, ahem, stump your family and friends.
Canada’s most iconic mammal is busiest in fall and winter, felling trees and making babies. Here are five things you may not know about Castor canadensis — the beaver.
- Wintertime preppers Beavers are aquatic, but they take to the shore from September until the ice freezes — they need to cut and stockpile a healthy supply of tree trunks and branches, enough to last them through the cold season. They can stash as much as 30 cubic metres (almost 8,000 US gallons) of food — a.k.a. wood — beside their lodges.
- Baby alert If beavers are busy in the fall, they’re gettin’ busy in January and February. That’s when they mate. Beaver babies, typically born between late April and early June, are able to swim within a few hours. They’re built for lake life, with transparent eyelids to see underwater; ears that can close, thanks to a special flap; webbed hind feet; and water-repellent fur.
- Do you smell a rat? In the water, and from a distance, beavers are sometimes difficult to differentiate from another aquatic, furry rodent: the muskrat. Both have similar faces, but muskrats are much smaller — 0.5 to 1.8 kg (about four or five pounds), max, compared to a beaver’s heftier average of around 20 kg (44 lbs). The simplest way to ID a muskrat is to look at its tail. Unlike a beaver’s wide, flat paddle, a muskrat tail is long, skinny, and rat-like. (Musk. Rat.) When swimming, beavers keep their tails underwater. Muskrats don’t.
- The face of a nation The beaver only became an official symbol of Canada in 1975, but its image has been connected to the country for much longer. A beaver has graced our classic 5-cent coin since 1937. (Who knew: the motif, designed by G.E. Kruger-Gray, was also considered for the dime.) Canada’s first postage stamp, issued in 1851, featured a beaver. This was a big deal at the time; it was the first-ever official stamp to showcase an animal.
- A final key point Beaver dams are vital; the ponds that damming creates become habitat for fish, amphibians, and insects, not to mention waterfowl, mammals, and songbirds. Research also shows that beaver activity can increase native plant biodiversity. This makes the beaver a “keystone species”—ecosystems depend on beavers. Unless they don’t: beavers are invasive in South America. Twenty-five pairs were introduced to Argentina and Chile in 1946 in an effort to boost the fur trade. With no natural predators, beaver numbers exploded. Fast forward to the present: their population has caused destruction to the environment and the infrastructure. But…the beavers are probably sorry about that. Because they’re Canadian.
Read about another Canadian icon, the Red Maple.
