North American Beaver Research Paper

Words: 814
Pages: 4

The North American beaver, or Castor canadensis, one of the largest members of the rodent family, is a keystone species which plays a large role in maintaining many of North America’s ecosystems. A keystone species is one which plays a crucial role in its ecosystem and which the fellow organisms in the ecosystem depend upon for survival. The North American beaver is also an ecological engineer, meaning that it either creates or maintains a habitat for other organisms in its ecosystem. Before the arrival of European settlers, the The North American beaver population reached an estimated 60-400 million individuals. Today, however, due to their unregulated trapping and demand for pelts in the 1700 and 1800’s, the beaver population of today reaches only 15 million individuals across North America. Before Europeans settlements, beavers lived throughout the majority of North America. The North American beavers’ habitat is located near …show more content…
The biggest issue facing North America’s beavers is habitat loss, which is caused primarily by the encroachment of humans into the beavers’ natural habitats. Because of the the damage caused by beavers to human-populated areas, beavers are often viewed as a nuisance, leading to their extermination by humans. Over-grazing of wild and domestic animals is also a large cause of beaver-habitat degradation. Also, due to the reintroduction of beavers into their original habitats, and their accidental introduction into areas outside of their original range across North America, beavers face the problem of being a non-native species with no natural predators. Because of this, the beaver population is skyrocketing is some areas, upsetting the natural order of the pre-existing ecosystem. Increasing demands on water resources also pose a problem to beaver populations by changing seasonal river flow and causing loss of vegetation due to lack of