I live near a nature trail with a river and you can find the results of there "work" everywhere - cut down trees and dams.
Not many animals invest so much effort cutting down very large trees and creating dams.
Lived here for 22 years, see their dams, and a LOT of "spikes" in the ground where small trees once stood but have never actually seen a Beaver in the wild??
I'm reminded of those Canadian Humorists the Arrogant worms' excellent prose:
"you might think a rodent/ is a pretty lame choice/ for a national animal, but/ don't you listen to that voice
Cuz all them birds and predators/ Just take from the land/ but the beaver/ Always gives a dam"
Do not interact with wild animals in general. They are not pets, they are not domesticated and are unpredictable.
They can and will bite, often shockingly hard.
In the water they're easy to spot because of the ripples behind them, and because they often slap the water with their tail to warn others of danger (my canoe, apparently).
Apparently they absolutely hate the sound and feel of running water, which is the behavioral cue that apparently causes all that dam behavior. [https://wildlifehelp.org/solution/new-york/beaver/how-preven...]
There is a good more-calming-than-it-has-a-right-to-be culvert clearing guy (post10) that can be entertaining. He’s run across beavers a few times, and is always clearing out culverts and drains they clog [https://youtu.be/ojQlk1yGHSw]