NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Eurasian Beaver
Castor fiber Linnaeus, 1758
Source-backed taxonomic record
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
The Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber) or European beaver is a species of beaver widespread across Eurasia, with a rapidly increasing population of 1.5 million in 2020. The Eurasian beaver was hunted to near-extinction for both its fur and castoreum, with only about 1,200 beavers in eight relict populations from France to Mongolia in the early 20th century. It has since been reintroduced into much of its former range and now lives from Western, Southern, Central and Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Russia through China and Mongolia, with about half the population in Russia. It is listed as least concern on the IUCN Red List.
Wikipedia contributors, Eurasian beaver; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T04:27:56.540266+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Castor fiber Linnaeus, 1758
- Name authority
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Common name
- Eurasian Beaver
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Mammalia
- Order
- Rodentia
- Family
- Castoridae
- Genus
- Castor
- Extinction status
- Recorded extant
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classMammalia Linnaeus, 1758
- subclassTheria Parker & Haswell, 1897
- infraclassEutheria Gill, 1872
- orderRodentia Bowdich, 1821
- suborderCastorimorpha A. E. Wood, 1955
- familyCastoridae Hemprich, 1820
- genusCastor Linnaeus, 1758
- speciesCastor fiber Linnaeus, 1758
Close classified relatives
No other member of this genus is present in the selected snapshot.
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Castor fiber vistulanus Matschie, 1907 Matschie, 1907 | synonym |
| Castor fiber pohlei Serebrennikov, 1929 Serebrennikov, 1929 | synonym |
| Castor fiber belorussicus Lavrov, 1981 Lavrov, 1981 | synonym |
| Castor fiber tuvinicus Lavrov, 1969 Lavrov, 1969 | synonym |
| Castor fiber fiber Linnaeus, 1758 Linnaeus, 1758 | synonym |
| Castor fiber galliae Geoffroy, 1803 Geoffroy, 1803 | synonym |
| Castor fiber albicus Matschie, 1907 Matschie, 1907 | synonym |
| Castor fiber birulai Serebrennikov, 1929 Serebrennikov, 1929 | synonym |
| Castor fiber orientoeuropaeus Lavrov, 1981 Lavrov, 1981 | synonym |
Documented distribution
Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=573165 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:RQPW. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.