Many years ago, Beaver had a strong and muscular tail that helped him carry the wood pieces to build his dam.

One day, the rain started to fall in the forest and the wind got stronger and stronger, destroying Beaver's dam. An intense water flood began.

 Beaver was panicking. He tried to swim to catch as many pieces as he could, but his tail was so heavy that he could not swim very fast. 

As it was flooding, the water took the pieces of wood that Beaver had put during his hard days of labour.

Suddenly, he felt like he was stock. Beaver could not swim at all. He turned around and noticed that his big, strong tail was stuck between two wood pieces.

Several minutes had passed and Beaver was still stuck. He decided to try one last time and to push his legs against the wood. 

He tried so hard that he succeeded. As soon as he was out, Beaver started to swim. He could now swim extremely fast and take all the pieces of wood that were lost and that fell off his dam.

When everything went back to normal, the rain had stopped, the water had calmed down and Beaver’s dam was completely rebuilt, he felt something strange. He felt like his tail was different. 

He looked at it and realized quickly that it was now completely flat!

It was a shock for him. At first, Beaver felt sad because he understood that his tail would never be the same again, never as strong as it used to be. However, Beaver remembered how fast he could swim with a flat tail. 

This is why beavers have flat tails today, and also why they can swim so fast.