BEAVER; CANADA'S NATIONAL ANIMAL.

Shannon News, 18 June 1929, Page 1

BEAVER; CANADA'S NATIONAL ANIMAL.

INTELLIGENCE AND ENERGY. BUILDING OF DAM'S REMARKABLE WORK VANCOUVER, June 1. Favourable notice is being taken, both in eastern ancl western Canada, of the suggestion of a Wellington correspondent for the exchange of black swans and Canadian beavers, which are very little known in New Zealand. The correspondent suggests that those intercsted in children and zoos should get in touch with the Mayors of Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, aD<3 also with Australian cities, for an exchange of kangaroos. The beaver is the national animal of Canada. lie typifies the character and disposition of the Canadian people in being- the embodiment of industry, perseverance and intelligent labour. On the Pacific coast is found the most valuable of the beaver family. Long claws on his forefeet are adapted for digging. Ears and eyes arc small. Nostrils can be closed when the animal is under water and he can swim a quarter of a mile without coming to the surface to breathe.

In habits the beavers are nocturnal. Their work i$ carried on during the first dark hours of the night. They are essentially acquatic, but must come to land for food and rest. They are credited with intelligence bordering on the human. The work of the beaver usually appears to be so Well adapter to a purpose that it would seem as if the animal is conscious of the effect of each step in the process of his work and had it carefully planned beforehand. Enmity Towaid Strangers. Among themselves the beavers are friendly,-but strangers are treated as enemies. A strange beaver placed in an enclosure with the family is attacked, and if he refuses to depart, is killed. The wolf) fox/ bear, lynx, and wild cat (cougar), are the enemies of the beaver. His span of life is from 12 to 20 years. They arc easily domesticated, and may be raised successfully on a business basis. They' are easily tamed. With plenty of clean water, good sleep hig quarters and a suitable food supply, they can be kept in either large or small areas. Skins fetch from £5 upward. The beet beaver country is in the Hudson Bay region. • The dam is the most famous and most remarkable of the boaver’s undertakings. It is a vast structure of sticks, stones and roots, mud. and sods laid across a running stream to back up the water to, ensure them depth enough to protect them from their enemies in summer, and preclude all danger of its freezing to the bottom in the winter. The male beaver and his wife decide upon the stream- they propose to make into a pond. They select a place where the bed of the stream is hard clay or gravel, neither rock nor bog being desirable, and when they have found such a place, they begin to. build. Home of the Beavers. The beavers’ home is either a den at the end of a burrow in a bank oi stream, or a house or lodge. Then are as a rule two entrances to the home, always under water. The in tcrior of the home is more or less dome shaped, with the floor a few inches above the level of t/he water. Thi size of the chamber is variable, from two to six feet,in diameter, and th. height from two to four feet. Tht beaver is a strict monogamist, and at mating season in February the pai make a contract for life. _ The younj. are born in May with thoir eyes ope; from the first; two to five in a Utter. The beaver has always supplied thi Uaple food and raiment to the Indian: jt the Mackenzie River Valley, as th. buffalo did to the Prairie. It- ha: been estimated that the annual tota number of beaver skins brought out b) ,ht Hudson Bay company and othei fur companies when the fur trade wa.at its height, was 500,000, and thai other agencies had brought an equa. number, so that the total annual death rate of the beaver at that time was at least a million. This was more than the natural increase, and their numbers steadily decreased. A Variety of Uses.

The existence of the beaver did more to open up Canada than any other creature or product. It was the pursuit of the s' beaver that lured on the early explorers and that brought Canada the original colonists. It was the beaver fur that bought for the white man the manufactures of Europe that were needed to make life tolerable when he first took to the woods.

In present-day life the variety of the beavers' uses is illustrated by the fact that, two summers ago, when the giant Mount Baker wrns ablaze and 55,000 acres of forest were burned out,, all the beaver-dams were broached by the fire-lighters in an effort to get the fire under control. It is but right that this industrious animal, the symbol of energy and industry, should be the emblem of the country for which it has done so much.