American Beaver Print
American Beaver Print
Size
12 × 12 in overall, unframed. The plate sits on an ivory sheet with a border of about an inch, so it fits a standard ready-made frame of the same size, with or without a mat.
Printed on 189 g/m² (10.3 mil) enhanced matte paper.
Want it ready to hang? The same plate comes framed in Black or Red Oak.
Two beavers at work on a gnawed trunk.
The print
- The full plate with its name, legend and credits, re-rendered from the source scan at print size, not enlarged from a shirt file.
- Restored from a library scan of the original book; nothing redrawn.
- Keep out of direct sunlight; a frame with glass or acrylic keeps it clean.
Shipping & production
Each print is printed for you after you order, usually within 2–5 business days, and ships on its own (separate from any shirts or framed prints in the same order). Shipping is shown at checkout before you pay.
Returns
If your print arrives damaged or misprinted, contact us within 30 days of delivery with a photo and we'll send a replacement or a refund. Because every print is made to order, we can't accept returns for a change of mind.
Plate 023
From the book
- Species
- Castor canadensis
- As named in the book
- American Beaver; Castor fiber americanus.
- Artist
- J. J. Audubon & J. Bachman
- Book
- The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, 1845–48
“Beavers prefer small clear-water rivers, and creeks, and likewise resort to large springs.”
Then and now
Trapped out of much of its range by 1900; now back in almost every state.
Field notes
Trapped nearly out of existence by 1900. About fifteen million now.
Audubon and Bachman painted two beavers at work on a gnawed trunk, and in their text took care to separate fact from legend: "three-fourths of the old accounts of this extraordinary animal are fabulous," they wrote. They trusted trappers instead, one of whom told them beavers prefer small clear-water rivers and creeks.
By the time they wrote, the fur trade had been at it for two centuries. Heavy trapping and forest clearing nearly wiped beaver out of much of North America by 1900.
The fur boom ended, states brought beavers back, and they have rebuilt to an estimated fifteen million. It matters well beyond beavers: their dams make wetlands for ducks, frogs, fish, otters and muskrats, slow floods and raise water tables. A keystone species, in the ecologists' term.
- 1600sThe fur trade begins.
- 1845–48Audubon and Bachman's "American Beaver."
- c. 1900Gone from much of its range.
- TodayAbout 15 million.