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Quoting a webpage about beavers is laughable.

The author has projected knowledge onto individual beavers, which is...asinine, to use your word.

The beavers don't look around and think "man, my legs are too short for this location. I need a lodge, dam, and pond!" They just do it. They don't "have a pretty good idea why."

The species as a whole has a motivation (survival), but it's a motivation selected by evolution, not by thought on any level.