YouTube Video
Our featured beaver documentary of the week, embedded from YouTube.
The rodent on the nickel: Canada's national animal
No other country has put quite so much of its economic history on the back of a semi-aquatic rodent.
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Beaver facts
- The beaver was given official status as a symbol of Canada in 1975, and has been on the Canadian five-cent piece since 1937.
- The North American beaver (Castor canadensis) is the second-largest rodent on Earth, after the capybara — adults typically weigh 16–30 kg.
- The transcontinental fur trade in beaver pelts drove much of the early European mapping of Canada, and the Hudson's Bay Company was founded on it in 1670.
- Castoreum is still occasionally used as a natural flavouring, which is why "natural vanilla flavour" has an unfortunate reputation it mostly doesn't deserve.
- Canada's beaver population has recovered to an estimated six to twelve million, from near-collapse at the height of the fur trade.
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Where the world's largest beaver dam sits, in Wood Buffalo National Park, Alberta.
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Canada's official account on the world's largest beaver dam.
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