The national animal of Canada is the beaver. This is an iconic Canadian mammal that has had an important place in the country’s history and still plays an important role today. Beavers are the official emblem of Canada and, after the maple leaf, perhaps among the most recognizable of Canadian symbols.
Beavers once had a much greater range than they do today, but in Canada they are still very much a vital part of local ecosystems.
These unusual mammals play a really important role in Canadian wildlife and they are iconic in the minds of the Canadian people for more than a few reasons.
Let’s find out more.
What is the national animal of Canada?
The national animal of Canada is the beaver.
It’s worth noting straight away that “beaver” is a term that denotes multiple different species and is in fact a genus of two different extant animals, though naturally they are very closely related.
The beaver in question in Canada, unsurprisingly, is the North American beaver.
These beavers are most often just called “beavers” in Canada, though, since they are the only species found in Canada.
Without doubt, the beaver is one of Canada’s most iconic animals.
Beavers have a long evolutionary history and we have fossil records indicating beaver ancestors as far back as 12 million years in Germany.
It’s thought that they migrated to North America via the Bering Strait.
Fossil records of the species in North America itself date back around 7 million years.
Indeed, at one time, as many as 25 subspecies of beaver were recognized in North America.
Mostly, these distinctions were simply based on minor morphological differences, and so they would still all have fallen under the “North American beaver” umbrella.
They are the biggest of all North American rodents, and their size appears to follow Bergmann’s rule.
This rule states that animals of a species will become larger in colder climates and smaller in warmer climates—to put it very loosely.
Thus, North American beavers found in Canada are noticeably larger than, say, in New York.
They are semiaquatic and spend a lot of time in the water, being most well-known for their habit of building dams in flowing rivers.
They have incredibly dextrous front paws rather like a racoon, which helps in the dam building.
The purpose of these dams is to create deep water refugia that enable them to escape from predators.
They may sometimes just live in a burrow or natural bank lodge with an underwater entrance.
Why is the beaver the national animal of Canada?
The beaver is deeply intertwined with Canadian history and has played an important role in the development of the modern nation of Canada as we understand it.
They were made the official symbol with royal assent in March of 1975.
Perhaps the single most important reason the beaver was chosen was its role in the historic fur trade.
European colonizers and explorers who first landed in Canada made trading furs one of their primary economic exploits.
They would trade furs with locals, of course, whether giving or receiving.
On the other hand, they would also get hugely rich by carrying large consignments of furs back to Europe to sell to locals.
It’s hard to overstate the importance that fur trading had to the establishment of local colonies in Canada during the age of exploration.
As early as the late 17th Century, Europeans already associated the beaver with the landmass that is today called Canada.
They remain, then, symbols of Canada’s beautiful and diverse wildlife.
The beaver trapping industry aside, they simply embody the Canadian wilderness and for many of us even outside of Canada, the first animal we might associate with the country would be beavers.
Where do beavers live?
As mentioned, beavers are semiaquatic, meaning that they spend a great deal of time in the water.
Naturally, then, they mostly live in and around bodies of water.
These can be both rivers and lakes, though they can also live in marshes and ditches.
They need water to swim in and herbaceous, woody plants.
They tend to prefer the rivers as they are attracted to flowing water, though they may feel compelled to stop the water flowing with a dam.
In other words, then, they live around water wherever they can find it but prefer rivers.
Are beavers aggressive?
Beavers generally aren’t aggressive when they are left to their own devices.
They certainly will not seek out confrontations with humans or other animals, and do not even eat fish—they are herbivores. Beavers have no tendency towards aggression.
With that said, if a beaver is cornered and has nowhere to go, they may well lash out at a human and they certainly have powerful teeth for biting.
They could hurt you in this way, then, though they are not very likely to do so unless you push them to it.
Beavers, then, are not aggressive in the vast majority of cases.
So, again, it’s almost hard to imagine Canada without beavers.
Both historically and in the modern day they have more than seeped into the Canadian collective imagination and made a place for themselves in the image of Canada both to its own citizens and to people worldwide.
Without beavers the face of Canada would look very different, as would the country’s past.
We can hope that potential threats to their futures are addressed as soon as possible.