Most all wildlife is hard wired to fight when flight is impossible. Beavers are very vulnerable to all predators on land. Too slow to run away and not fast enough to bring those big teeth to bear, mostly when caught on land they run for the water, if the water is too far away they are lunch. Beaver are chock a block full of tasty fat and humans have been eating them for a long time. They don't believe you are there just to take a picture.
I always seem to see beaver ponds when I get back away from trails and roads a good ways. I just plain like them. The ponds trap sediment that would otherwise get washed away and they make a large area wet. It's so dry here that any thing that keeps the moisture instead instead of sending it downstream to water a lawn in Los Angelas, is good.
The bushes and mud of filled in beaver ponds support a wider variety of animals than a simple creek, through the crucial winter too.
As long as I'm opinionating about wildlife I should give the obligatory "please don't feed the wildlife" spiel. Bears are just out of hibernation here and real hungry. Might be a good time to keep the trash in the garage until it's collection day. A fed bear is a dead bear right? Bird feeders too. Soon deer, elk, and pronghorn will begin dropping fawns. I stay as far away from them as I possibly can. A startled fawn might well become food for a predator as soon as I leave. End of lecture.
Ever been bit?