During the period between the 17th century and the end of the 19th century the European Beaver had disappeared from many regions in France, the Loire, the Seine and the Rhine as a result of human destruction, principally by the killing for meat, fur and castoreum which is a secretion from their scent glands, one use of which is in the perfume industry. In addition the construction of barrages and certain riverside constructions act as a restraint to their movements.

the European Beaver is not the same species as the North American Beaver. It is the largest rodent in Europe, head and body length can be more than 1 metre plus a tail of up to 38cm. The waterproof fur is particularly dense with between 12,000 and 23,000 hairs per sq.cm, the distinctive flattened, scaled, paddle shaped tail is hairless. Rear feet are webbed for propulsion purposes and the front feet have large claws for digging. Being a rodent it has large incisors for gnawing which continually grow. It has no natural predators left to any extent, wolves, bears, lynx and wolverine are no longer present in the same habitat, the main remaining causes of destruction are by poaching, road accidents and anti-coagulant poisoning aimed at other species, e.g. Ragondin (Coypu). Otters may take very young beavers and there is a danger of drowning if caught in "nasse silure" or catfish traps

that lives in small family groups with an adult pair, kits, yearlings and sometimes some slightly older offspring. At any one time, there is thought to be a floating population of unattached adults, which represents about 40% of the total population, which live on their own. The active area for a family group is normally 1 to 3 kilometers, although much larger distances have been observed and various indicators are used to provide evidence of their presence. On land, up to 100 metres from the water, tree felling areas can be found with the corridors that lead to them; also odd branches are often gnawed in a distinctive manner. Burrows in the bank sides used for resting, eating and storing food are not always easy to see unless branches have been used in their construction. Deposits of castoreum are used to mark territory; this is secreted from the anal glands under the tail and normally placed on mounds of soil within 1 metre of the waters edge, however excreta is deposited in the water and therefore can not be used as indication of presence. They are exclusively vegetarian consuming 2kg of vegetation or 700g of bark a day; in fact they have an eclectic diet which takes in most forms of vegetation, bark, leaves and tuberous roots. Damming and pond making using branches takes place but constructions are much smaller than those made by its North American cousin.