Beavers
Beavers are quite incredible creatures. There are several different species, but those that you hear about the most are those that build homes in rivers1:
- Beavers know how to build a dam for food; most beavers build dams for one main purpose: hold fish that they later eat; humans build farms too, also they have not been building fisheries for that long.
- Beavers build dams for protection; the dam itself is not the protection, but the higher waters behind the dam is; most of their predators will not venture in deep waters (mountain lions and wolves). Humans have build protects for a long time. At first they also used caves: pre-built homes!
- Beavers build excellent dams! (Am I repeating myself?) In that they know how to build the dam so it holds a huge quantity of water and also let the water go through in the event of a flood. Humans have built similarly good dams only in the last 2,000 years or so (well... Aztecs may have built better dams sooner, but we do not have proof of that.)
- Beavers build quite complex houses out of wood and mud in the middle of the lake that they create with their dam; these homes include different chambers for different matters: food, sleep, etc. It is not that long ago that humans started building such complex homes too.
- Beavers have incredibly solid front teeth that they use to cut trees. Many trees! To build their homes and dams. Humans had to build axes and now saws to cut trees. And they were not as effective.
- Beavers have skinned feet to swim faster. Humans now have such features using plastic gloves and special shoes2.
Why were trappers so smelly? Those trappers catching beavers for their fur would use the really thick grease of previous catches to trap new beavers. That grease was so thick that it would not get of your fingers when you put them in the water. So to take it off, trappers would put it in their pants... and that's a quite smelly grease, I'll tell you!
