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He seems a good catch in New York, where residents are always quick to bemoan their latest real-estate woes and dating disasters. Young, hard-working, single, he even built his own house on the waterfront.

There is no sign, though, that the first beaver to end a two-century absence in the area is actually looking for a mate. For now the animal nicknamed Jose appears content to add reinforcements to his home and swim the chilly Bronx River.

Beaver pelts were a major export commodity from New York all the way back to the days when the city was still Dutch-ruled New Amsterdam.

The huge European market for hats made from beaver pelts, a fashion that also spurred the exploration of Canada, didn't cool for centuries, and by 1800 the beaver was gone east of the Mississippi River.

The animal had been hunted nearly to extinction 130 years later, but has since rebounded in some areas.

Officials connected to the Bronx Zoo said yesterday that they finally saw the beaver — after sighting gnawed tree trunks and then, last week, a hump-shaped house. There are now photographs and video posted online to confirm the reappearance of the animal on which some of New York's wealthiest built their fortunes.

This beaver represents not only a renewal of its own species in the city but also a renewal for the Bronx River, which a generation ago was a filthy dumping ground for industrial pollutants and garbage.

The river's cleanup has been dramatic and was helped by $14.6-million (U.S.) in federal funding secured by politician Jose Serrano, who represents the Bronx in the U.S. House of Representatives and is the namesake for the beaver now living in his district.

Zoo officials say that Jose probably swam downstream from Westchester County, where a small beaver population had become established.

"It had to happen, because beaver populations are expanding, and their habitats are shrinking," Dietland Muller-Schwarze, a beaver expert from the State University of New York in Syracuse, told the Associated Press. "We're probably going to see more of them in the future."

Apparently unconcerned by the fuss his appearance has caused, the animal has built his lodge on a part of the Bronx River than runs through the zoo. It's a sizable structure that visitors using a particular entrance to the zoo are told to look out for.

Although there are likely many Canadian country-dwellers who would welcome a 200-year respite from beavers and their voracious appetites, zoo staff appear thrilled. They are urging what they call "visitors with beaver fever" to watch for Jose's lodge as they cross the bridge near Gate B.

Zoo officials like to point out that the beaver trade helped build the early prosperity of New York. Approximately 80,000 pelts passed through the city annually in the late 17th-century, part of an enormous trading network that fed the demands of European fashion, led to the establishment of inland forts and trading routes and made a few people hugely wealthy.

The beaver's importance to New York is reflected in its appearance on the city's official seal. In a similar acknowledgment, four beavers appear on the coat of arms of the Hudson's Bay Company, which began in 1670 as a fur-trading monopoly and later issued a coin to equal the value of one beaver pelt.