[fnordfnordfnord]

>The beaver doesn't know what it's doing, literally. It can't tell you why,

That's because beavers don't speak English.

> it doesn't have a greater plan of building a dam, etc.

Just because you've never seen beavers with little tiny HP calculators poring over pages of drawings and equations does not mean that beavers are mindlessly purposelessly building the dams. You think they just throw stick and through some coincidence, a beaver lodge appears? That's crazy. Beavers build those dams with the intent that it will protect them from predators; they intend to dam up creeks in order to submerge the eventual entrance to their lodge. It is deliberate.

[JoeAltmaier]

All animals that build shelters do it 'by accident' if that means through compulsive behaviors that end up with a meaningful construction. Termites. Ants. Birds. Gophers. Beavers.

[hawleyal]

You're pretending like human shelters are somehow different.

[Mobiu5]

"It is deliberate."

Source?

[fnordfnordfnord]

You got me. Do you happen to know of any other critters that construct dwellings by accident, and then I guess live in them by accident too?