- North American beavers are smaller than only the South American capybara, which looks sort of like a big guinea pig, and the European/Eurasian beaver. Typically, North American beavers weigh between 16 and 30 kilograms (35 and 66 pounds), but the largest-ever caught weighed 45 kilograms (99 pounds).
- Scientists say that in prehistoric times, beavers were the size of modern black bears.
- There are two to four “kits” in a typical beaver litter, and they can swim within 24 hours of being born. “Teenage” beavers—kits born the previous year—help babysit the new brood, although they’d probably rather be hanging out by the dam with their friends.
- Beavers chew wood to wear down their ever-growing front teeth.
- Beavers can cut down a tree with a 15-centimeter (6-inch) diameter in 20 minutes, gnawing around and around its base. They’ve been known to fell trees as large as 1.15 meters (5 feet) in diameter.
- Beaver dams are so well built that dynamite is often the best way to remove them.
- The longest known beaver dam is more than 800 meters (0.5 mile) long. It’s in northern Alberta.
- Two hundred years ago, North America was home to about 60 to 80 beavers per mile of stream. Because of their pelts, though, the animals were hunted to near extinction by the end of the 19th century. Nowadays, they’re protected enough to have come back with a vengeance in most of North America, including parts of New York City.
- During the Middle Ages, beavers were categorized as fish, which allowed Catholics to eat them during Lent. Why? They live in the water and have scaly tails…like fish.
- According to one Native American horoscope, people born under the sign of the Beaver (April 20-May 20) are methodical, smart, inventive, and headstrong.
The Irish Are Coming: The Fenians Awake
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