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Castoroides (Latin: "beaver" (castor), "like" (oides) [2]), or the giant beaver, is an extinct genus of enormous, bear-sized beavers that lived in North America during the Pleistocene. Two species are currently recognized, C. dilophidus in the Southeastern United States and C. ohioensis in most of North America.
Castoridae is a family of rodents that contains the two living species of beavers and their fossil relatives. A formerly diverse group, only a single genus is extant today, Castor . Two other genera of "giant beavers", Castoroides and Trogontherium , became extinct in the Late Pleistocene .
Beaver damage on the north shore of Robalo Lake, Navarino Island, Chile. In the 1940s, beavers were brought to Tierra del Fuego in southern Chile and Argentina for commercial fur production and introduced near Fagnano Lake. Although the fur enterprise failed, 25 mating pairs of beavers were released into the wild.
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Beavers can be found in a number of freshwater habitats, such as rivers, streams, lakes and ponds. They are herbivorous, consuming tree bark, aquatic plants, grasses and sedges. Beavers build dams and lodges using tree branches, vegetation, rocks and mud; they chew down trees for building material. Dams restrict water flow, and lodges serve as ...
Still, within river corridors, beavers can play a key role in creating natural fire breaks by rewetting meadows and reducing the encroachment of forests, researchers have found.
In their natural range in North America, bears and wolves prey on the beavers and keep the population under control. One observer noted that anyone considering importing beavers should also import bears, those being the beavers' natural predators. [4] According to a June 2011 NPR report, 200,000 beavers were living in the area. [6]
The parachuting beavers have become an Idaho icon, and the project represents a pivotal shift in how the animals were managed, experts said. It’s been 75 years since Idaho parachuted beavers ...