Nice Beaver!
Thanks, Just Had It Reintroduced to the English Countryside

It's after 5am here in the Pacific Northwest, and with excited curiosity as to what will be left under the Fitzmas tree, I just couldn't sleep. But first, before we get into the real nitty gritty, an aside. This BBC news story came over the RSS transom right before bed last night: First wild beavers for 500 years. Mrs. F was curious--what happened to them?

The beaver was hunted to extinction for its fur and the pain-relieving properties of its anal gland secretions.

Oh. There's also this little tidbit:

Whereas the American beaver can be destructive, environmentalists say the European species should be a force for good in the countryside.

[ed note: this joke's for you, Deege]