beofor

Beaver comes from Old English beofor, from Proto-Germanic *bebruz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰébʰrus (brown animal, beaver). The same root gives Latin fiber (beaver), Lithuanian bẽbras, and Sanskrit babhrú (brown, a mongoose). The beaver was named for being brown. This is like naming an architect 'the beige one.' The word missed the point entirely, but it stuck for 5,000 years.

Beavers were hunted to near-extinction in Europe by the sixteenth century. Their fur was the finest waterproofing material available, and beaver-felt hats were the dominant fashion in Europe from the 1500s through the 1800s. The European fur trade, and then the North American fur trade, was built primarily on beaver pelts. The Hudson's Bay Company, chartered in 1670, was essentially a beaver-pelt export business. The beaver drove European exploration of North America more than gold, land, or religion did.

Beavers are second only to humans in their ability to modify landscapes. A beaver dam can be hundreds of meters long. The longest known beaver dam, in Alberta, Canada, is 850 meters — visible from space. Beaver ponds create wetlands, raise water tables, reduce erosion, and create habitat for hundreds of species. When beavers were removed from European and North American rivers, the downstream effects included increased flooding, lower water tables, and habitat loss.

Beaver reintroduction programs are now underway across Europe and parts of North America. Beavers were reintroduced to Scotland in 2009 after a 400-year absence. They are being released in England to reduce flooding. The animal that was hunted for its fur is now being deployed for its engineering. The brown one turned out to be the most ecologically important mammal in the Northern Hemisphere after humans.