Beavers

Considering all the buildings and cities and massive skyscrapers humans have constructed, it’s fascinating to consider that people may have learned how to construct structures by watching birds create their nests. I always assumed most of an animal’s knowledge is instinctual and most our knowledge is learned. Even in creating a primitive hut, our ancestors may have needed inspiration from other creatures. An architect spends years in school learning how to construct; every building is carefully designed and mathematically planned out beforehand. A beaver creates its dam with just as much brilliance, but is its knowledge passed down through generations or instinctual? I’ve seem beaver dams before but I had no idea how precisely they are created. Their dams are flanked by 2 smaller barriers and are curved at the center where highest water pressure is, so that the dam can withstand change in water flow. Did it take many lost beaver homes from one beaver to engineer an ideal design to prevent dam destruction? Or do beaver just know out of common sense that they should construct two smaller dams so that their home will not be washed away during a flood? Sometimes I think humans just over think things. For example we naturally know what a good composition is and what colors look nice together, but once one is asked to be become consciously aware of it, something that was once so natural becomes confusing for a while. Perhaps much of our knowledge is instinctual, we just over think too much.