The stately Beaver

[Steve M]

A quote from Howtospotacanadian. Thought I'd share it, Ehh.


  You can tell a lot about a country by its national animal. The United States uses the bald eagle: a large bird of prey. The United Kingdom has a lion: an imposing carnivore. China has a dragon, Germany has an eagle, India has a Bengal tiger, Italy has a wolf. All of these animals are strong, proud and majestic. They are regal. They show the world that the country is question is large, grand and impressive.

Canada has a beaver.

Beavers are large rodents. Of course, they're not the largest rodents. No, choosing the largest of a species would be very un-Canadian. No, beavers are the second-largest rodents in the world. They are very slow on land and they frighten easily. They would probably lose in a fight to any of the other national animals listed above.

Well, that's not entirely true. Dragons are fictional. Even a beaver could beat up a fictional creature. It would be a close fight though.

However, what beavers lack in size, strength and imposing physical stature they make up in ingenuity.

A beaver dam is a pretty impressive structure. Beavers are hard workers and quite intelligent. The dams that they build are quite strong and beavers are able to build new dams or repair damaged ones quite quickly. Beavers work together with other beavers in order to build their dams.

Small, hard working, social and intelligent?

Yes, it makes sense that the beaver is Canada's national animal.

Of course, those traits are not the reason why the beaver is the national animal. No, like many other great symbols, the beaver is a martyr. When the Europeans originally began settling Canada, the fur trade was very important. More often than not it was beaver pelts that were being traded.

That's right, it was in death that the beaver became the symbol of Canada.

The conversation that decided this designation must have been completely bizarre:

[Flying Trucker]

Well done Steve...

If it was good enough for DeHavilland of Canada to honour the Beaver then that is good enough for me...

[Webb]

What about the elegant Cameltoe?

[Ang2dogs]

What about the elegant Cameltoe?

Isn't that the national animal of Pontang?

[expat]

What about the elegant Cameltoe?

Isn't that the national animal of Pontang?

Matt

[patchz]

I'll leave it here, but I really think this thread belongs in the humor section.

[Flying Trucker]

Hi Larry...

Not sure of Steve's intentions when he posted this thread but lately like the last few months there has been a woman politician who wants the Beaver changed to a Polar Bear.

[Hagar]

The United Kingdom has a lion: an imposing carnivore.

Now here was me thinking it's the British bulldog.

[ozzy72]

Doug, time to go to SpecSavers! THIS is a British Bulldog

[jetprop]

waiting for a drinking irish wolfhound now.

[andy190]

You lot are lucky, England has a Bulldog, Canada has a Beaver. This is what New Zealand has:



The Kiwi is our National animal. Turns out it's an Auzzie.

[Steve M]

You lot are lucky, England has a Bulldog, Canada has a Beaver. This is what New Zealand has:



The Kiwi is our National animal. Turns out it's an Auzzie.

Gosh Andy, does it make any ferocious sounds or attack anything? Maybe chew through a small stick, perhaps?

[andy190]

It eats bugs. It can't even fly now but they flew from Australia. :-?

The scariest thing about them it is their enclosure. It's all dark & spooky so the Kiwis eyes don't get hurt.

[Club508]

I'd say the U.S.'s bird SHOULD be the headless chickens.  Specifically the ones running around in our government's politics.

Kiwis actually can be a bit interesting.  I actually find them kind of cute/funny.

Looked em' up on wikipedia once before, and found some interesting stuff.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiwi

Some of the more intersting lines I found were:
    At around the size of a domestic chicken, kiwi are by far the smallest living ratites and lay the largest egg in relation to their body size of any species of bird in the world.  Producing the huge egg places a lot of demands on the female. For the thirty days it takes to grow the fully developed egg the female must eat three times her normal amount of food. Two to three days before the egg is laid there is little space left inside the female for her stomach and she is forced to fast.

    Kiwi have a highly developed sense of smell, unusual in a bird, and are the only birds with nostrils at the end of their long beaks.  Because their nostrils are located at the end of their long beaks, Kiwi can locate insects and worms underground using their keen sense of smell, without actually seeing or feeling them.

Kind of interesting creatures aren't they?

[andy190]

The Kiwi is an interesting bird but for a National animal it is a bit  :-/.

And it turns out that it is an Australian.

New Zealanders are called kiwis so now we're being called Aussies.