Urban Animals - Art Gallery of Alberta

The Alberta Foundation for the Arts Travelling Exhibition Program
Animal Studies: Beaver continued
Beavers have been trapped for milennia and this
continues to the present day. Once the early
European explorers realized that Canada was not the
spice-rich Orient, the main mercantile attraction was
the beaver, then a population numbering in the millions.
In the late 1600s and early 1700s the fashion of the
day demanded fur top-hats, which were produced from
beaver pelts as the most valuable part of the beaver is
its inner fur whose many minute barbs make it excellent
for felting. The trade in beaver pelts proved so lucrative
that the Hudson’s Bay Company honoured the animal
by putting it on the shield of its coat of arms in 1678, as
seen at right.
By the mid-19th century the beaver was close to extinction. There were an estimated six million
beavers in Canada before the start of the fur trade. During the trade’s peak 100,000 pelts were
being shipped to Europe each year. Eventually, however, the fur trade declined as Europeans
changed their fashion sense, coming to appreciate silk hats instead, and the demand for beaver
pelts all but disappeared.
Beaver testicles and castoreum, a bitter-tasting secretion contained in the castor sacs of male
and female beavers, were also articles of trade. These were used in traditional medicines and
for the production of castoreum, which was used as an analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and
antipyretic. Castoreum also continues to be used in perfume production. European beavers
were eventually hunted nearly to extinction in part for the production of castoreum.
The importance of the Beaver in the development of Canada through the fur trade led to
its official designation as the national animal in 1975. The beaver is also depicted on the
Canadian five-cent piece and was on the first pictorial postage stamp issued in the Canadian
colonies in 1849.
AFA Travelling Exhibition Program, Edmonton, AB. Ph: 780.428.3830 Fax: 780.421.0479
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