We’re taking a bit of a side trip here to another branch of the order Rodentia, from the suborder Sciuromorpha (wherein squirrels dwell) to the suborder Castorimorpha, Genus Castor, to our friend the American beaver.

This article from The Atlantic magazine (June 2012), includes a tale from the 1940s when Idaho’s Department of Fish and Game dropped parachuted crates of beavers to repopulate the wilderness and — quite progressively — improve the ecological balance thereby. (Current application: think climate change.)

Picture credit: OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay