The Beaver
History
Beavers were very common in North Carolina and in North America before European settlement. About 60 million are estimated to live North Carolina before extensive trapping. As America was colonized, however, intense trapping of beavers for fur wiped most of the population out east of the Mississippi River. The last native North Carolina beaver was in 1897. In the 1930’s, beavers were reintroduced in to North Carolina by the agency that has now become the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. Since that time, beaver populations have flourished. In fact, North Carolina has been so successful that trapping is once again needed in some areas of the state to stop timber damage and flooding caused by the rodents.
Description
The beaver is the largest rodent in North America. It has short front legs and webbed hind feet with a double claw on the second toe that the beaver uses to comb its fur. The color of its fur is a chestnut brown to a black, depending on the individual. Two noticeable features are its four large yellow incisor teeth used for cutting bark and chiseling trees, and its large flat hairless tail. The beaver uses its tail for swimming, for communicating waning, for storing fat, and also for support. Beavers are slow and clumsy on land, but agile and quick in the water. Newborn beavers are called kits in their first year and yearlings in their second. Beavers are herbivores, feeding mostly on inner bark of many kinds of trees. They eat the most in the summer.