International Beaver Day – April 7, 2025

History of International Beaver Day

International Beaver Day was created in 2009 by Beavers Wetlands & Wildlife (B.W.W.). April 7 was chosen as the date for the holiday because it marks the birthday of Dorothy Richards — popularly known as the ‘Beaver Woman’ — who was born in 1894. Richards engaged in the study of beavers for 50 years of her life.

The word ‘beaver’ derived its origin from the Old English word ‘beofor,’ meaning ‘brown’ or ‘bright.’ Beavers are semiaquatic rodents found in the temperate Northern Hemisphere in countries like Canada, Poland, Germany, France, central Russia, and southern Scandinavia, among others. They are the second-largest semi-aquatic rodents on earth, second only to capybaras. They typically live in freshwater environments, such as rivers, lakes, streams, and ponds. Beavers have large heads, stout bodies, and brown or gray fur, with hand-like front feet and back feet that are webbed.

Beavers are a keystone species, meaning that they have a disproportionately large effect on the environment in comparison to their number. Beavers make good use of the trees they eat by building dams and lodges with the leftover parts of it, also transporting other materials such as mud, rocks, and debris. Because they were often hunted for their fur and meat, beavers nearly became extinct in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Though there were reported to be about 60 million beavers in North America at one time, their population has dropped to around 10 to 15 million.