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The highlighted species of the month is Castor canadensis, the North American beaver, brave cousin of the Eurasian beaver, Castor fiber.

 

Among rodents, beavers are bested in size only by capybaras. Porcupines are number three. But since capybaras are native to South America, the beaver is king rodent in the northern hemisphere (except for him, of course).

 

April 7 was International Beaver Day, but you could be excused for missing it this year as there was so much hoopla surrounding the solar eclipse. News about the eclipse ended up eclipsing everything else.

 

Beaver movies have been few and far between, remarkably, considering their photogenic features and pro environmental qualities.

 

However, a recent addition to the catalog of beaver films is Hundreds of Beavers (2022). The New York Times suggests that if you are going to limit yourself to only one beaver movie this year, make it this one.

 

It seems like only yesterday that Zombeavers (2014) was released, “A fun weekend turns into horror and madness for a bunch of groupies looking for fun in a beaver infested swamp.” Incredibly, snubbed by the Academy with zero nominations.

 

There’s also Beavers, not to be confused with The Beaver, a movie about alcoholism with Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster. Turns out the beaver in that movie is a hand puppet the main character finds in the trash. Roger Ebert gave it two and a half stars (out of four) and called it "almost successful". So, more of a thumb sideways instead of a thumbs up.

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For interesting facts about the largest rodent in North America: click here.

For interesting facts about TV's Cleaver family: click here.

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