Beavers

Beavers are a species that are drivers of ecosystem conditions, by their natural habit of dam building that can result in changes in habitat through the flooding of considerable areas.

In many areas of Fundy, the lay of the land (steep gradient on many watercourses and valleys) is not favourable to beaver habitat; in more ’flat’ areas of the park, however, beavers have been, and continue to be, a species that has significantly shaped the habitat that they live in by flooding areas of considerable size, resulting in changes in the size of ponds and changes in surface water levels in treed areas.

Did you know?

We think of beavers as residents of calm waters (ponds or slow moving waters), but beavers are also a species that can take advantage of different habitat around them; in Fundy, we have encountered them in rivers, habitats with much steeper gradient than the more common expectation of where beavers should be.