DISTRIBUTION 7 
The European Beaver 
The European beaver, Castor fiber, is very similar in 
appearance to the American animal, but is slightly smaller. 
There are some differences in the characters of the skull, 
that of the European animal being the narrower, and having 
slightly proportionally longer nasal bones. 
DISTRIBUTION OF THE BEAVER 
Once the American beaver occupied a vast area on the 
North American continent. This area may be broadly 
stated as the whole of the United States, overlapping a short 
distance south into northern Mexico, and in Canada extend- 
ing north to the limit of the deciduous trees, really to that 
of the aspen; at the mouth of the Mackenzie River this 
brings the animal north of the Arctic Circle. Within this 
range it is absent from the desert regions of southern 
California, and parts of Utah and Nevada, and most of 
Florida, Georgia, and North and South Carolina. 
The accompanying map (fig. 7), reprinted by courtesy 
of the United States Biological Survey, shows the former 
distribution of the beaver and the distribution of the 
aspen. ‘Taking together the ranges of the various species 
of birch, these trees cover much the same ground as the 
aspen, but apparently do not extend quite as far to the 
north. 
Over much of this great area the animal has been exter- 
minated, and probably in much of the remaining part its 
numbers are greatly diminished. As an offset to this the 
beaver has been reintroduced in a number of localities, and 
is doing well in most of these places—too well in some, 
according to the opinions of some people whose property 
they have been damaging. 
It recently has been reported as having voluntarily re- 
