Beaver

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Beavers Fossil range: Late Miocene - Recent
American Beaver
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Rodentia Suborder: Castorimorpha Family: Castoridae Genus: Castor Linnaeus, 1758
Species
American Beaver, C. canadensis European Beaver, C. fiber

A beaver is a kind of rodent. It is semi-aquatic, meaning some of the time it lives in water, some of the time it lives on land. Beavers can only be found in North America and Europe. In Europe, they almost became extinct (died off), but they are returning. There are beavers living in the Elbe and Rhone rivers, as well as in Bavaria, Poland and Scandinavia. Beavers are known for building and keeping dams in rivers.

Contents 1 Kinds of beavers 1.1 The American beaver 1.1.1 References 1.2 The European beaver 1.2.1 References 2 Other websites 3 Images

[change] Kinds of beavers

Currently there are two different species of beaver, the American beaver (C. canadensis) and the European beaver (C. fiber).

[change] The American beaver

This beaver can be found in North America, in Canada, the United States and in Northern Mexico. It is the second largest rodent in the world, and the largest found in North America. The largest rodent of the world is the capybara from South America.

[change] References

The references are probably not written in Simple English

• MacDonald & Cook (2000). Castor canadensis. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 May 2006.
• Castor canadensis (TSN 180212). Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Accessed on 18 March 2006.

[change] The European beaver

The European beaver is currently an endangered species. It was hunted almost to extinction. This was done because of its fur, and because of castoreum. Castoreum is made by a certain gland, which is also responsible for the smell of the animal..^[1] People are currently (2007) reintroducing the beaver, because the important role of the beaver for the ecology of rivers was discovered.^[2] Beaver dams (or the small lakes that form) provide a habitat for many species.

[change] References

The references are probably not written in Simple English

1. ↑ Gippoliti (2002). Castor fiber. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is near threatened
2. ↑ Europäischer Biber. WWF Österreich. Retrieved on August 24, 2006.

[change] Other websites

• Ecology of the Beaver
• Canadian Heritage - the beaver as a national symbol
• The romance of the beaver; being the history of the beaver in the western hemisphere, by A. Radclyffe Dugmore. Illustrated with photographs from life and drawings by the author. Publisher: Philadelphia, J.B. Lippincott company; London, W. Heinemann 1914 (a searchable facsimile at the University of Georgia Libraries)

[change] Images

An American Beaver

A (European) beaver in Norway

Beavers chopped down this tree

Beaver dam near Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina