The Pesky, Wonderful Beaver The American Beaver (Castor canadensis) is one of the most interesting, and controversial, animals that exist in southeastern North Carolina. They were actually extirpated from NC in the late 1890’s because their fur was so popular for making hats and other clothing items, that they were hunted out.They were reintroduced in the 1920’s by the ������������ ������ ������������ ���������������������������� �������������� ���������� ������ ������������ �������������������� name comes from the castor gland, which is located near the base of the tail. The castor gland produces a substance called castoreum which the beaver rubs on scent mounds. The scent mounds are piles of mud and leaves and are used by the beaver to mark its territory. Although no longer used by humans in medicine, castoreum is still used in perfumes and to a muchlesser extent as a food additive. If you have trees in a wetland and when you look at those trees, all you see is cash, you are probably not a big fan of beavers. If you enjoy nature, and especially wetlands, and �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� or other mammals, then the beaver very likely makes your forays into the great outdoors more enjoyable, whether you ������ �������� ������ ���������� ������ ������������ ������ ������ �������������� ������������ ������������ ������ �������������� and seeing the many wonderful creatures that we share the earth with. The clash between these two situations that result from the work of the incredibly hard working, industrious beaver is what makes the beaver such a controversial little creature. This is because the beaver, through its hard work �������� ������������������������ ���������������� �������� ���������������������� ������������ �������� ������������������ of many tree species in a wetland while at the same time creating better, or even new, habitat for many other species of wildlife. Even those who dislike beavers, because the page By Neill Lee result of their work negatively impacts some human pursuits, must surely admire the non-stop work that beavers exhibit. This has led to several phrases people frequently use, such as “busy as a beaver”, that any hard working person would be proud to be labelled as. In fact, they are the 2nd greatest engineer and manipulator of their environment on planet Earth. The only one that is better at this? Humans! The �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� National Park in Alberta, Canada. It is 2790 ft. long and can be seen from space. It is twice as long as Hoover Dam. What makes the beaver an animal that is disliked by many people is that it builds a dam which backs up the water above the dam and creates a beaver pond. Unfortunately, this pond ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ to use parts of it to make both its dam and the beaver’s home, ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� by humans for agricultural and other uses. For these reasons many people dislike the beaver and sometimes work to eliminate it from their property. What makes the beaver liked ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ animal species is, ironically, the very same thing that makes some people dislike it- it builds a dam which backs up the water above it and creates a beaver pond. So how can this beaver pond that results from this incredibly hard working little animal be considered both bad and good. We have looked at the negative that can result from the activities of the beaver so let’s look at the incredible good it also does. The beaver is a keystone species. A keystone species is a 28
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