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99-675: Atlin is an anglicization of Áa Tlein , the Tlingit word for "big body of water". The area has been used by the Taku River Tlingit for many years as attested to by artifacts discovered at nearly 40 excavated archaeological sites in the area. The gold rush came to Atlin Lake country in 1898 and was one of the richest offshoots of the Klondike Gold Rush . By the end of the mining season of 1899 about 5000 people flocked to

198-416: A circumflex , and long low vowels are marked with a grave accent. Short low vowels are unmarked. Coastal Tlingit <áa> and <aa> are Inland <â> and <à> respectively. Coastal <éi> and <ei> are Inland <ê> and <è>, Coastal <ée> and <ee> are Inland <î> and <ì>, and Coastal <óo> and <oo> are Inland <û> and <ù>. Word onset

297-425: A nictitating membrane which allows the beaver to see under water. The nostrils and ears are sealed while submerged. Their lips can be closed behind their front teeth so that they can continue to gnaw underwater. A thick layer of fat under its skin insulates the beaver from its coldwater environment. The beaver's fur consists of long, coarse outer hairs and short, fine inner hairs (see Double coat ). The fur has

396-441: A beaver family's food cache, the upper part which is frozen in the ice, while the cache itself is composed of edible, high quality branches, which remain unfrozen and accessible. Beavers avoid red maple , which can be the only tree left standing at the edges of some beaver ponds. The beaver's gut microbiome is complex and specialized for a wood-heavy diet, sharing a number of similarities with other mammalian herbivores. However

495-547: A beaver, most likely only small kits. Despite repeated claims, no evidence shows that North American river otters are typically predators of beavers but anecdotally may take a rare beaver kit. North American beavers have one litter per year, coming into estrus for only 12 to 24 hours, between late December and May but peaking in January. Unlike most other rodents, beaver pairs are monogamous, staying together for multiple breeding seasons. Gestation averages 128 days and they have

594-521: A greater range of bipedal locomotion than the European species. North American beavers have shorter nasal bones than their European relatives, with the widest point being at the middle of the snout for the former, and in the tip for the latter. The nasal opening for the North American species is square, unlike that of the European species, which is triangular. The foramen magnum is triangular in

693-748: A head of state. It is also the state animal of Oregon and New York of the United States , and a common school emblem for engineering schools, including the California Institute of Technology , the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , and the University of Alberta as well as the mascot for Oregon State University , Babson College , and the City College of New York . A beaver is featured prominently on

792-625: A long period in the family to develop their dam construction skills, and other abilities required for independent life. Beavers are herbivorous generalists with sophisticated foraging preferences. Beavers consume a mix of herbaceous and woody plants , which varies considerably in both composition and species diversity by region and season. They prefer aspen and other poplars , but also take birch , maple , willow , alder , black cherry , red oak , beech , ash , hornbeam , and occasionally pine and spruce . They also eat cattails , water lilies , and other aquatic vegetation, especially in

891-400: A meter from water. Over 100 of such mounds can be constructed within one territory. Beaver colonies with close neighbors constructed more "scent mounds" than did isolated colonies, and the number of scent mounds at each active lodge is correlated with the distance to the nearest occupied lodge. Although seven vocal sounds have been described for beaver, most zoologists recognize only three:

990-555: A modern work postdating Naish and Story's work in the 1960s. North American beaver Castor fiber canadensis The North American beaver ( Castor canadensis ) is one of two extant beaver species , along with the Eurasian beaver ( Castor fiber ). It is native to North America and has been introduced in South America ( Patagonia ) and Europe (primarily Finland and Karelia ). The North American beaver

1089-423: A range of colors, but usually is dark brown. Scent glands near the genitals secrete an oily substance known as castoreum , which the beaver uses to waterproof its fur. There is also another set of oil glands producing unique chemical identifiers in the form of waxy esters and fatty acids. The lush, workable fur was made into a number of products, most notably hats . Demand for furs for hats drove beavers nearly to

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1188-605: A range of three to six kits per litter (usually 4-5). Most beavers do not reproduce until they are three years of age, but about 20% of two-year-old females reproduce. Although North American beavers are superficially similar to the European beaver ( Castor fiber ), several important differences exist between the two species. North American beavers tend to be slightly smaller, with smaller, more rounded heads; shorter, wider muzzles; thicker, longer, and darker underfur; wider, more oval-shaped tails; and longer shin bones, allowing them

1287-420: A rare beaver of up to adult size, and Canada lynx , bobcats , and foxes (predators of kits or very sick or injured animals, rather than full-grown beavers due to their increasingly smaller size). American alligators , which only minimally co-exist in the wild with beavers, also seldom threaten them. Both golden eagles ( Aquila chrysaetos ) and bald eagles ( Haliaeetus leucocephalus ) may on occasion prey on

1386-587: A reintroduction project. By 1999, it was estimated that 90% of beavers in Finland were the American species. However, the species is not always considered invasive, as in Europe it has a similar keystone effect to European beavers, which have not recolonized the area. The beaver population has been controlled by issuing hunting licenses. A report in 2010 concluded that while the current population of American beavers

1485-432: A whine, hiss, and growl. Vocalizations and tail slapping may be used to beg for food, signal to family members to warn of predators, or to drive away or elicit a response from predators. Beavers usually mate for life, forming familial colonies. Beaver "kits" are born precocious and with a developed coat. The young beaver "kits" typically remain with their parents up to two years. Kits express some adult behaviors, but require

1584-468: Is murmured , essentially a rapid opening of the glottis once articulation is begun.) The tone values in two-tone dialects can be predicted in some cases from the three-tone values but not the reverse. Earlier, it was hypothesized that the three-tone dialects were older and that the two-tone dialects evolved from them. However, Jeff Leer 's discovery of the Tongass dialect in the late 1970s has shown that

1683-673: Is always consonantal in Tlingit and so words never begin with a vowel. Where a vowel would theoretically have occurred, such as by prefixing or compounding, the vowel is always followed by either [ʔ] or [j] . The former is universal in single words, and both are found in word-medial position in compounds. The orthography does not reflect the [ʔ] in word-initial position, but either . or y may be seen in medial position. For example: khu- INDH . OBJ - ÿu- PERF - ÿa- ( 0 , - D , +I)- t'áa hot khu- ÿu- ÿa- t'áa INDH .OBJ- PERF- {(0, -D, +I)}- hot "the weather

1782-442: Is because of the influence of English, which makes a similar distinction. For speakers who make the voiced/unvoiced distinction, the distribution is symmetrical with the unaspirated/aspirated distinction among other speakers. Maddieson , Smith, and Bessel (2001) note that all word final non-ejective stops are phonemically unaspirated. That contrasts with the orthography that typically represents them as aspirated stops: t [tʰ] for

1881-434: Is common to later hear such speakers producing those forms themselves. It is uncertain whether this assimilation is autochthonous or if it arose from contact with English, but the former is more likely from a purely articulatory perspective. Young speakers and second-language learners are increasingly making a voiced/unvoiced distinction between consonants, rather than the traditional unaspirated/aspirated distinction. That

1980-404: Is divided into roughly five major dialects, all of which are essentially mutually intelligible: The various dialects of Tlingit can be classified roughly into two-tone and three-tone systems. Tongass Tlingit, however, has no tone but a four-way register contrast between short, long, glottalized, and "fading" vowels. (In the last type, the onset of the vowel is articulated normally but the release

2079-405: Is hot" Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) ( help ); But when the perfective prefix ÿu- is word-initial, the glottal stop appears to ensure that the word begins with a consonant. ∅- 3 . NEU . OBJ - ÿu- PERF - ÿa- ( 0 , - D , +I)- t'áa hot ∅- ÿu- ÿa- t'áa 3. NEU .OBJ- PERF- {(0, -D, +I)}- hot "it is hot" Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) ( help ); Until

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2178-420: Is less common. Muskrats have been thought to steal food from beaver lodges, but seemingly cooperative relationships exist, with beavers allowing muskrats to reside in their lodge if they gather fresh reeds. Another component to the beaver's habitat is the canal. Canals are used to float logs to a pond, and dams may also be used to maintain the water levels in these canals. Several land trails can extend from

2277-401: Is likely to be available for the longest period of time in a beaver's habitat especially in the far north. When available, aspen and poplar are preferred over willow. Conifers are also cut or gnawed by beavers, and used for food and/or building material. Beavers do not necessarily use the same trees as construction material and as food. Inedible material is more likely to be used as the cap of

2376-488: Is located on the southern edge of Wood Buffalo National Park in northern Alberta and is more than twice the width of the Hoover Dam which spans 1,244 ft (379 m). Normally, the purpose of the dam is to provide water around their lodges that is deep enough that it does not freeze solid in winter. The dams also flood areas of surrounding forest, giving the beaver safe access to an important food supply, which

2475-403: Is not well-researched. In the 1940s, beavers were brought to Tierra del Fuego in southern Chile and Argentina for commercial fur production and introduced near Fagnano Lake . Although the fur enterprise failed, 25 mating pairs of beavers were released into the wild. Having no natural predators in their new environment, they quickly spread throughout the main island, and to other islands in

2574-880: Is often called the " mountain beaver ". Other vernacular names, including American beaver and Canadian beaver , distinguish this species from the other extant beaver species, Castor fiber , which is native to Eurasia . The first fossil records of beaver are 10 to 12 million years old in Germany, and they are thought to have migrated to North America across the Bering Strait . The oldest fossil record of beavers in North America are of two beaver teeth near Dayville, Oregon , and are 7 million years old. At one time, 25 subspecies of beavers were identified in North America, with distinctions based primarily on slight morphological differences and geographical isolation at

2673-533: Is one of the official national wildlife of Canada symbols and is the official state mammal of Oregon and New York . North American beavers are widespread across the continental United States , Canada , southern Alaska , and some parts of northern Mexico . In Canada and the United States, the North American beaver is often referred to simply as "beaver", although this can cause some confusion because another distantly related rodent, Aplodontia rufa ,

2772-410: Is possible but has not been verified that aspirated and unaspirated stops are collapsed into a single phoneme word-finally. Maddieson and colleagues also confirm that the ejective fricatives in Tlingit are in fact true ejectives, despite the widely-held assumption that ejective fricatives are not actually phonetically ejective but are as a sequence of fricative and glottal stop. In Tlingit, at least,

2871-492: Is remarkably specialized for the efficient digestion of its lignocellulose -heavy diet. Brain anatomy of the beaver is not particularly specialized for its semiaquatic life history. The brain masses of a beaver weighing 11.7 and 17 kg are 41 and 45 g respectively. C. canadensis has an encephalization quotient of 0.9 compared to other rodents; this is intermediate between similar terrestrial rodents and arboreal squirrels, and higher than similar aquatic terrestrial rodents,

2970-681: Is spoken by the Tlingit people of Southeast Alaska and Western Canada and is a branch of the Na-Dene language family . Extensive effort is being put into revitalization programs in Southeast Alaska to revive and preserve the Tlingit language and culture. Missionaries of the Russian Orthodox Church were the first to develop a written version of Tlingit by using the Cyrillic script to record and translate it when

3069-621: Is symmetric with an aspirated consonant Cʰ , and a glottalized vowel Vʔ is symmetric with an ejective (glottalized) consonant Cʼ . That implies that the two systems have no familial relationship. Leer (1978) speculated that the maintenance of the pretonal system in Tongass Tlingit was caused by the proximity of its speakers around the Cape Fox area near the mouth of the Portland Canal to speakers of Coastal Tsimshian, just to

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3168-416: Is the leaves, buds, and inner bark of growing trees. In colder climates where their pond freezes over, beavers also build a food cache from this food resource. To form the cache, beavers collect food in late fall in the form of tree branches, storing them under water (usually by sticking the sharp chewed base of the branches into the mud on the pond bottom), where they can be accessed through the winter. Often,

3267-542: The Coast Tsimshian dialect . However, Krauss and Leer (1981, p. 165) point out that the fading vowels in Coastal Tsimshian are the surface realization of underlying sequences of vowel and glottalized sonorant, VʔC . That is in contradistinction to the glottal modifications in Tongass Tlingit, which Leer argues are symmetric with the modifications of the consonantal system. Thus, a fading vowel V̤

3366-844: The European beaver , for being the third-largest in the world, both following the South American capybara and lesser capybara . The European species is slightly larger on average but the American has a larger known maximum size. Adults usually weigh from 11 to 32 kg (24 to 71 lb), with 20 kg (44 lb) being typical. In New York , the average weight of adult male beavers was 18.9 kg (42 lb), while non-native females in Finland averaged 18.1 kg (40 lb). However, adults of both sexes averaged 16.8 kg (37 lb) in Ohio . The species seems to conform to Bergmann's rule , as northern animals appear to be larger. In

3465-612: The Northwest Territory , adults weighed a median of 20.5 kg (45 lb). The American beaver is slightly smaller in average body mass than the Eurasian species. The head-and-body length of adult North American beavers is 74–90 cm (29–35 in), with the tail adding a further 20–35 cm (7.9–13.8 in). Very old individuals can exceptionally exceed normal sizes, weighing more than 40 kg (88 lb) or even as much as 50 kg (110 lb) (higher than

3564-601: The Russian Empire had contact with Alaska and the coast of North America down to Sonoma County, California . After the Alaska Purchase , English-speaking missionaries from the United States developed a written version of the language with the Latin alphabet . The history of Tlingit is poorly known, mostly because there is no written record until the first contact with Europeans around the 1790s. Documentation

3663-710: The Sonora River may be the earliest report on the southernmost range of this North American aquatic mammal. However, beavers have also been reported both historically and contemporarily in Mexico on the Colorado River , Bavispe River , and San Bernardino River in the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua . Beavers are active mainly at night. They are excellent swimmers and may remain submerged up to 15 minutes. More vulnerable on land, they tend to remain in

3762-748: The Taku River and into northern British Columbia and the Yukon around Atlin Lake ( Áa Tleen "Big Lake") and Teslin Lake ( Desleen < Tas Tleen "Big Thread") lake districts, as well as a concentration around Bennett Lake at the end of the Chilkoot Trail ( Jilkhoot ). Otherwise, Tlingit is not found in Canada . Tlingit legend tells that groups of Tlingit once inhabited the Stikine , Nass , and Skeena river valleys during their migrations from

3861-563: The arctic tundra to the deserts of northern Mexico , and from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans . They are widely distributed in boreal and temperate ecoregions, where populations are rebounding from historic over-exploitation. Recently, beaver have been observed colonizing arctic tundra, likely as a result of climate-induced increases in riparian shrubs. Physician naturalist Edgar Alexander Mearns ' 1907 report of beaver on

3960-541: The dam is to create a deepwater refuge enabling the beaver to escape from predators. When deep water is already present in lakes, rivers, or larger streams, the beaver may dwell in a bank burrow and bank lodge with an underwater entrance. The beaver dam is constructed using branches from trees the beavers cut down, as well as rocks, grass, and mud. Where naturally-occurring woody material is limiting, beavers may build their dams largely of rocks. The inner bark, twigs, shoots, and leaves of such trees are also an important part of

4059-490: The muskrats and nutria . The cerebrum is well developed, and the neocortex comparatively large. Larger areas of the beaver's somatosensory cortex are dedicated to the processing of stimuli from the lips and the hands, more so than the tail and whiskers, which play a relatively minor role. The visual area of the brain is smaller than the gray squirrel . Before their near- extirpation by trapping in North America, beavers were practically ubiquitous and lived from south of

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4158-520: The 1950s to 1970s. Zoo escapes in 2006 created a small population of invasive C. canadensis in Luxembourg , Rhineland-Palatinate and Belgium . American beavers have not been detected in Sweden, Norway, or Denmark. Beaver meat is similar tasting to lean beef , but care must be taken to prevent contamination from the animal's strong castor ( musk ) gland. It is usually slow-cooked in a broth, and

4257-468: The Fuegian environment and because biologists want to preserve the unique biota of the region, most favor their removal. North American beavers were released in Finland in 1937, before it was realized that they formed a separate species; following this, 7 beavers expanded to a population of 12,000 within 64 years. Eurasian beavers had earlier been extirpated from the region, so the release was intended as

4356-516: The Haida linguist John Enrico presented new arguments and reopened the debate. Victor Golla writes in his 2011 California Native Languages , "John Enrico, the contemporary linguist with the deepest knowledge of Haida, continues to believe that a real, if distant, genetic relationship connects Haida to Na-Dene[.]" The Tlingit language is distributed from near the mouth of the Copper River down

4455-830: The North American beaver, and rounded in the European. The anal glands of the North American beaver are smaller and thick-walled with a small internal volume compared to that of the European species. Finally, the guard hairs of the North American beaver have a shorter hollow medulla at their tips. Fur color is also different. Overall, 50% of North American beavers have pale brown fur, 25% are reddish brown, 20% are brown, and 6% are blackish, while in European beavers, 66% have pale brown or beige fur, 20% are reddish brown, nearly 8% are brown, and only 4% have blackish coats. The two species are not genetically compatible. North American beavers have 40 chromosomes , while European beavers have 48. Also, more than 27 attempts were made in Russia to hybridize

4554-601: The Northern dialect, the dominant spoken dialect of Tlingit and the standard for written Tlingit, every vowel may take either high or low tone ; in the orthography high tone is indicated by an acute accent ( áa ) and low tone is unmarked ( aa ). The Southern and Transitional dialects have a mid tone which is unmarked and additional low tone which is marked by a grave accent ( àa ). The Inland Tlingit orthography does not use vowel digraphs. Instead, short high vowels are marked with an acute accent, long high vowels are marked with

4653-468: The Tongass vowel system is adequate to predict the tonal features of both the two-tone and three-tone dialects, but none of the tonal dialects could be used to predict vocalic feature distribution in Tongass Tlingit. Thus, Tongass Tlingit is the most conservative of the various dialects of Tlingit, preserving contrasts which have been lost in the other dialects. The fading and glottalized vowels in Tongass Tlingit have also been compared with similar systems in

4752-714: The United States, extensive trapping began in the early 17th century, with more than 10,000 beaver per year taken for the fur trade in Connecticut and Massachusetts between 1620 and 1630. From 1630 to 1640, around 80,000 beavers were taken annually from the Hudson River and western New York. From 1670 onwards, the Hudson's Bay Company sent two or three trading ships into the bay every year to take furs to England from Canada. Archaeological and historical evidence suggests that beaver ponds created "moth-hole like" habitats in

4851-449: The archipelago, reaching a number of 100,000 individuals within just 50 years. Although they have been considered an invasive species , it has been more recently shown that the beaver have some beneficial ecological effects on native fish and should not be considered wholly detrimental. Although the dominant Lenga beech ( Nothofagus pumilio ) forest can regenerate from stumps, most of the newly created beaver wetlands are being colonized by

4950-481: The articulation of ejective fricatives includes complete closure of the glottis before frication begins, and the larynx is raised in the same manner as with ejective stops. Characteristically, the ejective fricatives in Tlingit feature a much smaller aperture for frication than is found in ordinary fricatives. That articulation provides increased resistance to counter the continual loss of dynamic airstream pressure. Also, ejective fricatives appear to include tightening of

5049-418: The artificial ponds which form. When building in a pond, the beavers first make a pile of sticks and then eat out one or more underwater entrances and two platforms above the water surface inside the pile. The first is used for drying off. Towards winter, the lodge is often plastered with mud which, when it freezes, has the consistency of concrete. A small air hole is left in the top of the lodge. The purpose of

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5148-647: The beaver was brought to the brink of extinction. With protection in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the current beaver population has rebounded to an estimated 10 to 15 million; this is a fraction of the originally estimated 100 to 200 million North American beavers before the days of the fur trade . These animals are considered pests in parts of their range because their dams can cause flooding, or because their habit of felling trees can pose danger to people, as in Charlotte, North Carolina 's Park Road Park . Because they are persistent in repairing damage to

5247-481: The beaver's diet. The trees are cut down using their strong incisor teeth. Their front paws are used for digging and carrying and placing materials. The sound of running water dictates when and where a beaver builds its dam. Besides providing a safe home for the beaver, beaver ponds also provide habitat for waterfowl , fish , and other aquatic animals. Their dams help reduce soil erosion and can help reduce flooding. However, beaver dams are not permanent and depend on

5346-568: The beavers did not seem to have a highly beneficial impact on the exotic brook trout ( Salvelinus fontinalis ) and rainbow trout ( Oncorhynchus mykiss ) which have negative impacts on native stream fishes in the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve , Chile . They have also been found to cross saltwater to islands northward; and reached the Chilean mainland in the 1990s. On balance, because of their landscape-wide modifications to

5445-404: The beavers' continued presence for their maintenance. Beavers generally concentrate on building and repairing dams in the fall in preparation for the coming winter. In northern areas, they often do not repair breaches in the dam made by otters, and sometimes breach the dam themselves and lower the water level in the pond to create more breathing space under the ice or get easier access to trees below

5544-608: The canals. Despite being widespread in some beaver-inhabited areas, beaver canals and their environmental effects are much less studied than beaver dams. Beaver primarily develop canals to increase accessibility of river resources, facilitate transport of acquired resources, and to decrease the risk of predation. Beaver canals can be over 0.5 km in length. Beavers build canals by pushing through soil and vegetation using their forelimbs. It has been hypothesized that beavers' canals are not only transportation routes to extend foraging, but also an extension of their " central place " around

5643-413: The construction of a tunnel to divert water from Atlin Lake to the Taku River . Fearing a potential disruption to the local environment, the provincial government opted to protect Atlin Lake and its surroundings by establishing a provincial park in the area in 1973. A second factor which motivated the creation of this park was a desire on the part of the newly elected provincial NDP government to reverse

5742-826: The dam, they were historically relocated or exterminated. Nonlethal methods of containing beaver-related flooding have been developed. One such flow device has been used by both the Canadian and U.S. governments, called "beaver deceivers" or levelers, invented and pioneered by wildlife biologist Skip Lisle. The beaver is a keystone species , increasing biodiversity in its territory through creation of ponds and wetlands. As wetlands are formed and riparian habitats enlarged, aquatic plants colonize newly available watery habitat. Insect, invertebrate, fish, mammal, and bird diversities are also expanded. Effects of beaver recolonization on native and non-native species in streams where they have been historically absent, particularly dryland streams,

5841-517: The dam. In a 1988 study in Alberta, Canada, no beavers repaired "sites of water loss" during the winter. Of 178 sites of water loss, beavers repaired 78 when water was opened, and did not repair 68. The rest were partially repaired. Beavers are best known for their dam-building. They maintain their pond-habitat by reacting quickly to the sound of running water, and damming it up with tree branches and mud. Early ecologists believed that this dam-building

5940-515: The deciduous forest that dominated eastern North America. This nonforest habitat attracted both Native American and early colonial hunters to the abundant fish, waterfowl, and large game attracted to the riparian clearings created by these aquatic mammals. The first colonial farmers were also attracted to the fertile, flat bottomlands created by the accumulated silt and organic matter in beaver ponds. As eastern beaver populations were depleted, English, French, and American trappers pushed west. Much of

6039-464: The distances that separate them, both geographic and linguistic. Tlingit is currently classified as a distinct and separate branch of Na-Dene, an indigenous language family of North America . Edward Sapir (1915) argued for its inclusion in the Na-Dené family, a claim that was subsequently debated by Franz Boas (1917), P.E. Goddard (1920), and many other prominent linguists of the time. Studies in

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6138-441: The early spring. Contrary to widespread belief, they do not eat fish. Beavers select food based on taste, coarse physical shape, and odor. Beavers feed on wood, bark, cambium, branches, twigs, roots, buds, leaves, stems, sprouts, and in some cases, the sap and storax of pine and sweetgum . When herbaceous plants are actively growing, they make up much of the beaver's diet. In the winter, beavers switch to woody plants and

6237-575: The fact that substantial genetic mixing of populations has occurred because of the numerous reintroduction efforts intended to help the species recover following extirpation from many regions. The most widespread (formerly recognized) subspecies, which perhaps are now best thought of as populations with some distinct physical characteristics, are C. c. acadicus (New England beaver), C. c. canadensis (Canadian beaver), C. c. carolinensis (Carolina beaver), and C. c. missouriensis (Missouri River beaver). The Canadian beaver originally inhabited almost all of

6336-401: The food they have stored over the winter. The protein to calorie ratio of a beaver's diet is 40 mg/calorie in summer and 8 mg/calorie for the rest of the year. In northern latitudes, the water lilies Nymphaea and Nuphar are the most important herbaceous component. The rhizomes are stored in the food cache and remain actively growing. Willow is an important protein source and

6435-727: The forested area of Canada, and because of its more valued fur, was often selected for reintroductions elsewhere. The Carolina beaver is found in the southeastern United States; the Missouri River beaver, as its name suggests, is found in the Missouri River and its tributaries; and C. c. acadicus is found throughout the New England area in the northeastern United States. The beaver is the largest rodent in North America and competes with its Eurasian counterpart,

6534-696: The inland portions of the Atlin-Taku region." Located 20 kilometres south of Atlin, British Columbia , surrounding Atlin Lake . Visitors cannot access the park by vehicle. The primary means of access are via boat or aircraft, but it is also possible to hike in or ride in (once a permit for bringing a horse into the park has been obtained from provincial authorities). The park is 301,140 hectares (1,163 square miles) in size. Tlingit language The Tlingit language ( English: / ˈ k l ɪ ŋ k ɪ t / KLING -kit ; Lingít Tlingit pronunciation: [ɬɪ̀nkɪ́tʰ] )

6633-660: The interior. There is a small group of speakers (some 85) in Washington as well. Golla (2007) reported a decreasing population of 500 speakers in Alaska. The First Peoples' Cultural Council (2014) reported 2 speakers in Canada out of an ethnic population of 400. As of 2013, Tlingit courses are available at the University of Alaska Southeast . In April 2014, Alaska HB 216 recognized Tlingit as an official language of Alaska, lending support to language revitalization . Tlingit

6732-676: The late 1960s, Tlingit was written exclusively in phonetic transcription in the works of linguists and anthropologists except for a little-known Cyrillic alphabet used for publications by the Russian Orthodox Church . A number of amateur anthropologists doing extensive work on the Tlingit had no training in linguistics and so left numerous samples in vague and inconsistent transcriptions, the most famous being George T. Emmons . However, such noted anthropologists as Franz Boas , John R. Swanton , and Frederica de Laguna have transcribed Tlingit in various related systems that feature accuracy and consistency but sacrifice readability. Two problems ensue from

6831-512: The late 20th century by (Heinz-)Jürgen Pinnow (1962, 1968, 1970, int. al.) and Michael E. Krauss (1964, 1965, 1969, int. al.) showed a strong connection to Eyak and hence to the Athabaskan languages . Sapir initially proposed a connection between Tlingit and Haida , but the debate over Na-Dene gradually excluded Haida from the discussion. Haida is now considered an isolate , with some borrowing from its long proximity with Tlingit. In 2004,

6930-581: The lodge and/or food cache. A 2012 study of beavers' mark on the landscape found that cut stumps were negatively related to distance from beaver canals, but not to the central body of water. This finding suggested that beavers may consider the canals to be part of their "central place" as far as foraging activity is concerned. Communication is highly developed in beaver, including scent marking , vocalization, and tail slapping. Beaver deposit castoreum on piles of debris and mud called scent mounds, which are usually placed on or near lodges, dams, and trails less than

7029-469: The maximum known for the Eurasian beaver). Like the capybara, the beaver is semiaquatic . The beaver has many traits suited to this lifestyle. It has a large, flat, paddle-shaped tail and large, webbed hind feet. The unwebbed front paws are smaller, with claws. The forepaws are highly dextrous, and are used both for digging, and to fold individual leaves into their mouth and to rotate small, pencil-sized stems as they gnaw off bark. The eyes are covered by

7128-665: The microbial community in the beaver shows less taxonomic diversity than the "typical" mammalian gut. The major operational taxonomic units (OTU) are Bacteroidota and Bacillota . Common natural predators include coyotes , wolves , and mountain lions . American black bears may also prey on beavers if the opportunity arises, often by smashing their paws into the beavers' lodges. Perhaps due to differing habitat preferences, grizzly bears were not known to hunt beavers in Denali National Park , Alaska . Less significant predators include wolverines , which may attack

7227-421: The more accurate d [t] . There is a wide variation in ordinary speech, ranging from unreleased [t̚] to a very delayed aspiration [tːʰ] . However, the underlying phoneme is certainly unaspirated /t/ since it is consistently produced when the word is suffixed. The orthography usually but not always reflects that: hít "house" is written (du) hídi "(his) house" when marked with the possessive suffix -ÿí . It

7326-409: The move, but noted that these new parks largely protected alpine wilderness or, as in the case of Atlin, areas in remote parts of the province where access was difficult. For these reasons the newly protected lands were of little value to the logging industry. The provincial government was criticized for making "easy decisions" which the logging industry would not oppose. Environmental concern involving

7425-489: The multiplicity of transcription systems used for Tlingit. One is that there are many of them, thus requiring any reader to learn each individual system depending on what sources are used. The other is that most transcriptions made before Boas's study of Tlingit have numerous mistakes in them, particularly because of misinterpretations of the short vowels and ejective consonants. Accuracy of transcription can be increased by checking against similar words in other systems, or against

7524-601: The open coast of the Gulf of Alaska and throughout almost all of the islands of the Alexander Archipelago in Southeast Alaska . It is characterized by four or five distinct dialects, but they are mostly mutually intelligible. Almost all of the area where the Tlingit language is endemic is contained within the modern borders of Alaska . The exception is an area known as "Inland Tlingit" that extends up

7623-540: The park boundary. In 2011 the provincial government and the Taku River Tlingit completed a land-use plan for the Atlin Lake area which prohibits weir construction and many other types of development. Atlin's extensive icefields have attracted recent interest from glaciologists and other scientists. Their studies have helped to raise awareness of the park's conservation value. Approximately one third of

7722-408: The park recently resurfaced in the reaction to a proposal by Yukon Energy to construct a weir at Atlin Lake's outlet to stabilize its water level. Yukon Energy stated that the weir is needed to retain water during the winter months which in turn will permit the production of more hydroelectricity downstream during these months when the demand for electricity is highest. Environmentalists responded that

7821-500: The park's area is occupied by glaciers . The Llewellyn Glacier , considered the source of the Yukon River , is the park's largest. It covers 71,140 hectares and the next largest, Willison Glacier, covers 10,165 hectares. Among the park's many lakes, the largest is Atlin Lake. At 775 square kilometers, it is the largest natural freshwater body in the province. Three of British Columbia's biogeoclimatic zones are represented within

7920-411: The park's environment throughout this century. As temperatures rise, more precipitation is likely to arrive as rain rather than snow. Mean annual snowfall may be reduced by as much as 40% by 2100. Lake levels and the size of the park's mountain glaciers may decline as a result. These climatic changes are also anticipated to produce "reduced alpine vegetation and a shift to warmer biogeoclimatic zones in

8019-559: The park: The parks aims to protect habitat for grizzly and black bear , mountain goat , caribou , moose , Stone sheep , and various timber wolf populations. There are many small mammals such as hoary marmots , Arctic ground squirrels , pikas , beavers and river otters . Birds also inhabit the park area, such as the Arctic tern , blue-grouse , ruffed-grouse and the rock , willow and white-tailed ptarmigan . Rising temperatures driven by climate change are expected to affect

8118-481: The pharyngeal muscles, which reduces the diameter of the air column and so further increases pressure. That pharyngeal constriction is not true pharyngealization, however, since the diameter is still greater than what is found in pharyngealized consonants in other languages. Tlingit has eight vowels , four vowels further distinguished formally by length . However, the length distinction is often in terms of tenseness rather than length, particularly in rapid speech. For

8217-410: The pile of food branches projects above the pond and collects snow. This insulates the water below it and keeps the pond open at that location. The frozen combination of branches and ice is known as a cap, sealing the food cache. Beavers often maintain an underwater entrance to their dam, and they can access their food cache from their lodge by swimming under the ice. In warmer climes, a winter food store

8316-401: The point of extinction, and the North American species was saved principally by a sudden change in style. The beaver possesses continuously (or constantly) growing incisors , and is a hindgut fermenter whose cecum , populated by symbiotic bacteria, helps to digest plant-based material. These traits are not unique to beavers, and are in fact present among all rodents. Nonetheless, the beaver

8415-464: The policy of prior administrations towards the provincial park system. Noting how prior administrations over the preceding two decades had reduced the number of hectares protected by provincial parks such as Hamber , the NDP government pledged to include over 600,000 hectares (1,500,000 acres) of new land within this system. Atlin was one of several new parks created at the time. Environmental groups applauded

8514-433: The rarer native Antarctic beech ( Nothofagus antarctica ). It is not known whether the shrubbier Antarctic beech will be succeeded by the originally dominant and larger Lengo beech, however, and the beaver wetlands are readily colonized by non-native plant species. In contrast, areas with introduced beaver were associated with increased populations of the native catadromous puye fish ( Galaxias maculatus ). Furthermore,

8613-454: The region, and the community of Atlin was a busy and important town. Although creeks in the present-day park must have been prospected, none bore any gold. Although production was greatest in the early years, the Atlin field still produces today. Total placer gold production has exceeded $ 23 million. In the early 1970s, BC Hydro proposed development of a hydroelectric project which included

8712-514: The south. Tlingit has a complex phonological system compared to Indo-European languages such as English or Spanish . It has an almost complete series of ejective consonants accompanying its stop, fricative, and affricate consonants. The only missing consonant in the Tlingit ejective series is [ʃʼ] . The language is also notable for having several laterals but no voiced [l] and for having no labials in most dialects, except for [m] and [p] in recent English loanwords . The consonants in

8811-558: The stamp and seal issued to Professional Engineers and Geoscientists by APEGA . It also appears on the back on the state flag of Oregon . The beaver also appears in the coats of arms of the Hudson's Bay Company , University of Toronto , Wilfrid Laurier University , and the London School of Economics . The beaver is also the symbol of the Royal Canadian Engineers both combat and civil. Busy beaver

8910-584: The table are given in the IPA, with the popular orthography equivalents in brackets. Marginal or historical phonemes are given in parentheses. Nasal consonants assimilating with /n/ and the velar and uvular plosives is common among Tlingit-speakers of all dialects. For example, the sequence ng ( /nk/ ) is often heard as [ŋk] and ngh ( /nq/ ) as [ɴq] . Native speakers in a teaching position may admonish learners when they produce these assimilated forms, deriding them as "not Tlingit" or "too English", but it

9009-566: The time of discovery. However, modern techniques generally use genetics rather than morphology to distinguish between subspecies, and currently the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (which provides authoritative taxonomic information on plants, animals, fungi, and microbes of North America and the world) does not recognize any subspecies of C. canadensis, though a definitive genetic analysis has not been performed. Such an analysis would be complicated by

9108-417: The two species, with one breeding between a male North American beaver and a female European resulting in one stillborn kit. These factors make interspecific breeding unlikely in areas where the two species' ranges overlap. The beaver was trapped out and almost extirpated in North America because its fur and castoreum were highly sought after. The beaver furs were used to make clothing and beaver hats . In

9207-479: The water as much as possible. They use their flat, scaly tail both to signal danger by slapping the surface of the water and as a location for fat storage. They construct their homes, or "lodges", out of sticks, twigs, rocks, and mud in lakes , streams , and tidal river deltas . These lodges may be surrounded by water, or touching land, including burrows dug into river banks. Beavers are well known for building dams across streams and constructing their lodges in

9306-475: The weir could inflict ecological damage and disrupt the migration route of lake trout and other fish between Atlin and nearby lakes. Many local residents were opposed out of concern that raised lake levels could cause flooding and increase shoreline erosion. For the project to proceed, Yukon Energy required the approval of the British Columbia provincial government because part of Atlin Lake is within

9405-459: The westward expansion and exploration of North America was driven by the quest for this animal's fur. Before the 1849 California Gold Rush , an earlier, 19th-century California Fur Rush drove the earliest American settlement in that state. During the roughly 30 years (1806–1838) of the era of the mountain man , the West from Missouri to California and from Canada to Mexico was thoroughly explored and

9504-553: Was a valuable food source to Native Americans . Early French Canadian Catholics considered beaver to be "four-legged fish" that could be eaten at Lent. As one of the national symbols of Canada, the North American beaver is depicted on the Canadian nickel . This beaver was also featured on the first Canadian postage stamp, the Three Penny Beaver, which is considered the first postage stamp to show an animal instead of

9603-420: Was an amazing feat of architectural planning, indicative of the beaver's high intellect. This theory was tested when a recording of running water was played in a field near a beaver pond. Although it was on dry land, the beaver covered the tape player with branches and mud. The largest beaver dam is 2,790 ft (850 m) in length—more than half a mile long—and was discovered via satellite imagery in 2007. It

9702-524: Was not problematic, as the species has larger litters than European beavers and builds somewhat larger dams, it could become a problem if its range continues expanding into Russia, but this does not seem to be taking place. In Europe, significant invasive populations of Canadian beaver are only present in Finland and Karelia , as the boundary between species has somewhat stabilized, but smaller occurrences have been detected elsewhere. Ephemeral populations of C. canadensis in Germany and Poland were found from

9801-571: Was sparse and irregular until the early 20th century. The language appears to have spread northward from the Ketchikan – Saxman area towards the Chilkat region since certain conservative features are reduced gradually from south to north. The shared features between the Eyak language , found around the Copper River delta, and Tongass Tlingit , near the Portland Canal , are all the more striking for

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