Beaver returns to the Big Apple

Beaver returns to the Big Apple



Feb 2007 - The beaver, the 
state mammal of New York, and whose image adorns the official 
seal of New York City, has returned to the Big Apple after an 
absence that dates to 1800, when the animal was hunted to 
local extinction. 
Employees from the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation 
Society, WCS, have discovered a beaver and its lodge in the 
Bronx River along with numerous gnawed tree stumps. 
WCS wildlife experts say the animal probably swam downstream 
from Westchester County, where beavers are still sometimes 
seen. 
The beaver is nicknamed "Jose" after Congressman Jose Serrano, 
a Democrat who has been a Bronx River advocate for years. 
"The return of the beaver to the Bronx River is not only an 
enormous success in our ongoing environmental restoration 
project, it's also a great victory for our community," said 
Congressman Serrano, who has helped secure $14.5 million in 
federal grants for the Bronx River's restoration over the past 
five years. "I've always felt that what's good for the 
environment is also good for the Bronx and its citizens." 
"This is a symbolic moment for our great city," said Dr. 
Steven Sanderson, president and CEO of the Bronx Zoo-based 
Wildlife Conservation Society. "New York City is the epitome 
of an urban environment. The fact that an animal which 
represents the wild frontier of North America can live and 
thrive in a river that runs through the Bronx Zoo is proof 
that we can coexist with nature anywhere on the planet. 
Anything is possible." 
The beaver is North America's largest rodent, with a combined 
head and body length between two and three feet. Beavers 
usually weigh between 25 and 55 pounds, with occasional 
animals weighing up to 90 pounds. 
The beaver is known as one of nature's great engineers, 
altering its environment by felling large trees with its teeth 
and constructing dams and lodges. 
Historically, the beaver skin trade was central to the 
founding of New York. During 1626, when the Dutch purchased 
the island of Manhattan from Native Americans, traders shipped 
7,246 beaver pelts back to the Netherlands. 
By 1671, with the city renamed New York by the English, the 
trade climbed to 80,000 skins annually. Beaver pelts were used 
as currency. The central role of the beaver in New York City's 
history is commemorated on the city's official seal. 
One block south of the New York Stock Exchange in Manhattan is 
Beaver Street, another sign of the rodent's impact on the 
city's founders. 
In pre-colonial America, beavers in North America are 
estimated to have numbered more than 60 million. By 1800, 
beavers had vanished in the United States east of the 
Mississippi, and by 1930, the beaver was near extinction and 
in need of protection. 
Today, the beaver has rebounded in much of its traditional 
range. 
"Having beavers back in the Bronx River is certainly one of 
our proudest achievements," said Linda Cox, Bronx River 
Administrator for the New York City Parks Department and 
executive director of the Bronx River Alliance, which was 
created in 2001 to help restore and protect the Bronx River 
corridor and greenway. "It's proof positive that our efforts 
to bring the river back to ecological health have been 
successful." 

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