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Before Europeans came to North America,
beavers were abundant, inhabiting riverbanks in forests throughout the continent. The fur trade was one of the things that brought people to
North America, however, and pelts were an extremely valuable commodity. When competition broke out between two rival fur
companies, they both overtrapped, in an attempt to keep the other company from getting the beavers.
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The European was once common throughout Eurasia, as well as England. But by the early 1900s, only a few remained, mainly in remote areas of Finland and the former USSR. Their populations are now recovering, but some of their remaining habitat has been taken over by the North American species, which was imported in the 1920s. |
| Two beavers swimming near fallen logs. Photo courtesy Al Walters. |
beavers -- page 3 of 5
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related topics
[forests through time]
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