All About Beavers

Podcast Transcript

When you think of animals that have impacted history, your first thought may be of dogs, cows, pigs, or horses. Yet another animal has played an oversized role in history, and it was never domesticated: beavers.

Beavers have been among the most important animals in history because of the value of their pelts and their impact on the landscape.

Beaver pelts were regarded as a durable, luxurious material and became the center of one of the most important economic industries in early North America….and they even started a war.

Learn about Beavers and their role in history on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

Before getting into the beaver’s role in history, it is important to understand what beavers are and their characteristics.

Beavers, generically, are not a species but a genus with the scientific designation castor.

There are two species of beaver, the Eurasian Beaver and the North American Beaver.

A beaver is a large semiaquatic rodent native to the Northern Hemisphere and the second-largest rodent in the world. Beavers tend to be stocky creatures with beige to black coats. Their bodies are built similarly to those of marine mammals, being streamlined and adapted for life in aquatic environments.

Beavers are best known for modifying their habitat by cutting down trees with their teeth and creating dams. These dams are water-tight and created with branches, reeds, and saplings. The woven sticks are caulked with mud.

These dams can be massive, regularly reaching heights of up to 6.5 feet (2 meters) and widths of up to 39 feet (12 meters). The dams can completely alter the surrounding ecosystem by creating new habitats and creating slower-moving ponds that reduce erosion.

The world’s largest beaver dam is located in northern Alberta in Wood Buffalo National Park. It stretches roughly 850 meters (2,788 feet) and is visible in satellite imagery. It was constructed over decades by generations of beavers in a remote wetland.

One of beavers’ most notable physical features is their tail. The tail is flat, scaly, and muscular. It serves a few functions for the beaver, serving as a rudder when swimming, and serving as a support beam when the beaver needs to stand upright, like when it’s chewing on a tree.

In the winter, the tail helps the beaver by storing fat and holding a blood vessel system that helps maintain body heat when it is cold outside.

The tails also serve as a method of communication. When a beaver feels they are in danger, it is common for them to slap their tail against the water, indicating danger and for other beavers to seek refuge.

The other main feature of the beaver is their jaw and teeth. When you think of a beaver, you think of the rodent chewing away at a tree. The animal could do so because of a few genetic adaptations.

In general, the beaver’s jaw is just incredibly strong, having powerful chewing muscles. This works in tandem with their powerful incisors and their back molars, which are used for grinding wood.

For beavers, incisors continue to grow throughout their entire lives. They are covered with a thick enamel, which protects the beaver’s teeth when they are chewing on trees. This is a crucial adaptation because chewing down trees allows them to make the dams they make for homes.

Beavers are social creatures that form strong familial bonds. It is typically believed that beavers mate for life, and that each group of beavers is made up of the breeding pair, their children from the current and previous year, and potentially sub-adults.

During the winter, the beaver family lives together in their dam, sharing food from their shared stored supply. Beavers are herbivores that eat woody stems, aquatic plants, leaves, and materials for their dams.

When it’s cold outside, beavers eat branches stored on their pond’s floor. Because the pond bed’s cold, their food stays refrigerated and doesn’t spoil.

North American and Eurasian beavers differ biologically, most significantly in their chromosome counts. The North American species has 40 chromosomes, while the Eurasian species has 48. This genetic disparity prevents the two species from interbreeding. There are also a few minor differences in their physical appearance.

The other main difference between the species is their fur. The Eurasian Beaver has longer fur. Generally, Eurasian Beavers are more beige in color, whereas North American beavers are more brown in color.

The fur of the beaver has a few different purposes. It helps protect the creature from predators, keeps it warm, and helps the beaver float in the water.

It was the fur of the beaver that was of primary interest to humans, and it was what almost caused their extinction.

Beavers have had a long and tumultuous history with humans, as they have been hunted primarily for their fur, meat, and an oil they secrete called castoreum, which was used in perfumes.

This led to them being hunted to near extinction on numerous occasions.

Beaver fur was highly valued for making clothing because of its desirable qualities: it was considered luxurious, warm, soft, and durable. The fur was utilized in two main forms: the full pelt, which included both the fur and the skin, or as suede (leather), which was the beaver’s skin after all the fur had been removed.

The castoreum is a yellow fluid that beavers release from their castor sacs to mark their territory. It is similar to a scent gland but is not considered one because of differences at the cellular level.

Beaver castoreum was collected and used for perfume. The castoreum was extracted from the castor sac and aged for at least two years. The scent was widely used to add notes of “leather” to perfumes.

The desire for Beaver fur has been present for centuries. One of the initial supply lines in Europe occurred in the 15th century. Beaver fur from the Eurasian Beaver, typically from Russia, Scandinavia, and Central Asia, was traded throughout the Mediterranean and the Middle East.

The once-abundant Eurasian beaver became overhunted by the 17th century, leading to their near extinction. If it weren’t for the colonization of America, trade might have ended in Europe.

However, when Europeans colonized North America, they encountered the beaver.

Previously, the North American Beaver had been an integral part of multiple Indigenous Tribes. They too hunted beaver for its meat and fur, and its castoreum, which they used to attract other animals.

Following the start of North American colonization, European demand for beaver pelts, primarily for hats, increased dramatically, leading to a massive expansion in beaver trapping.

The primary producers of beaver pelts in North America were native people who lived there. While hunting beaver had always been a part of their culture, the way of life of Indigenous peoples changed as the beaver fur trade became highly lucrative.

Formerly nomadic tribes built more permanent settlements and began to focus on trapping beavers and other animals for their fur instead of traditional hunting.

The principal European groups involved in the fur trade were the French, British, and Dutch. All three of these nations worked to establish the fur trade, basically substituting the North American Beaver for the near-extinct Eurasian Beaver.

Indigenous Tribes were considered critical by all three major European powers in their quest to expand beaver sources. Their deep familiarity with the land and advanced skills in beaver trapping and hunting were essential to this collaboration.

The fur trade became critical for the economic success of the entire colonial enterprise in North America. The raw materials being sent back to Europe provided the colonies with financial backing.

Furs were traded back to England or France and sold domestically or exported to other parts of Europe. One of the largest buyers of the pelts was Russia.

Once in Europe, the beaver pelts were separated into three categories: bandeau, castor gras, and castor sec.

Bandeau was made from beaver pelts that arrived in Europe with little cleaning. The pelt was scraped, but often had rotted or decayed spots, rendering it of the lowest quality.

In contrast, castor gras pelts were considered the highest quality. Native Americans wore these furs during the hunting and trapping seasons. Because they sweat while hunting, their body oil often made the pelt more pliable and therefore easier to felt. Because of this, castor gras fur was the most expensive even though they were technically used..

Castor sec was a middle grade between bandeau and castor gras. These pelts were scraped clean and in completely new, never-worn condition. However, because these furs were never worn, they were more difficult to work with.

The influx of material made the beaver fur trade even more popular and completely changed global economics. The fur trade was responsible for the development of trading networks which extended from North America to the rest of the world.

The fur trade also helped connect the Indigenous tribes of North America with the European Colonial powers. In exchange for pelts and furs, it was common for the Europeans to trade tribes gunpowder, weapons, and steel tools.

The alliances formed by the trade networks fundamentally changed society in North America, entangling Native Americans in European conflicts for years.

The quest for beaver pelts was also the cause of conflict.

Beginning in 1640, a war was fought between the Iroquois Confederacy and Algonquian-speaking tribes. The primary cause of the war was the beaver fur trade. At the time, beaver pelts were one of the most desired products in the world, and the war was fought over who was going to control the fur trade.

The Iroquois Confederacy was centered on the St. Lawrence River and consisted of five tribes that spoke the same Iroquois language.?? These tribes had all been involved in the fur trade for at least two centuries. They had traded primarily with the British and Dutch in exchange for firearms and tools.

As local beaver populations declined in Iroquois territory, they launched campaigns westward and northward to control new hunting grounds and trading routes.

Algonquian-speaking tribes lived in the Ohio Country and the Great Lakes region. In comparison to the Iroquois Confederacy, there were still plenty of beavers in the territory.

Upon arriving in the Ohio country, the Iroquois encountered other tribes. Utilizing the advantage of their firearms, the Iroquois forcibly displaced the Algonquian-speaking tribes.

The Algonquian tribes were at a significant disadvantage in this conflict because their allies, the French, had maintained a policy of not trading firearms to native peoples.

The Iroquois were renowned for their strategic and guerrilla-style warfare during the conflict. These tactics allowed them to significantly expand their territory and influence, securing their power but simultaneously putting them in direct conflict with French Colonists.

The War lasted for decades and ultimately ended in 1701. By this time, the Iroquois essentially controled the trapping of beavers. The French, wanting to retain control of the Northern fur trade, changed their alliance to the Iroquois.

The resolution of the Beaver Wars shaped the political and social landscapes of North America for both Indigenous Tribes and European colonial powers.

The beaver trade was one of North America’s first commercial industries and fundamentally changed the New World’s economy. It provided new trade routes, altered indigenous societies, and shaped the backdrop of colonial North America.

However, by doing this, the beaver population in North America was drastically depleted. The total population of 200 million beavers eventually declined to 100,000.

Fortunately for the surviving North American beaver, the fashion crazy around beaver pelt eventually passed, allowing the species to take a slow road to recovery.

The population naturally began to grow as trapping declined, but concerted efforts to increase it began in the 1940s. Populations were reintroduced into different wetlands, helping them grow back to roughly 6 to 15 million.

As for the Eurasian beaver, efforts were also made to help bring the species back from the brink of extinction. In parts of Europe, beaver populations were hunted to extinction, prompting efforts to reintroduce the species into the ecosystem.

The beavers that had survived in Eurasia had done so in small, isolated pockets in remote areas. This had protected them from being hunted during the beaver fur craze.

To aid in the recovery of the Eurasian Beaver population, steps such as legal protections and reintroduction programs have been implemented, mirroring efforts to restore the North American Beaver.

The Eurasian beaver population has gradually recovered, growing from 1,200 individuals in the early 20th century to about 1.2 million today.

Beavers have played a far larger role in the world and in human history than most people realize. Not only were they the cause of wars and a driver of fashion trends, but they are also responsible for the preservation of wetlands through the construction of their dams.