INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT BEAVERS

INTERESTING  FACTS ABOUT BEAVERS 

Castor Linnaeus
Family:Castoridae

Beavers are mammals.

•  Are usually found in freshwater in Canada and the United States.
•  Are the second largest rodent in the world. (The word rodent  means “to gnaw or chew.”) work very   Hard and this is why we have the saying “busy as a beaver.”
•  Like to work as a team.
•  Can live until up to twenty years of age.
•  Move better in the water than on land.
•  Can hold their breath for ten to twenty minutes and are great swimmers.
•  Do not hibernate but gain weight in the fall to prepare for less food in the winter.
•  Are mostly nocturnal (active at night).

APPEARANCE

•  Beavers grow to 50 kg (110 lbs.). 
•  They can be 1 m long. 
•  Their head and body is 55 cm to 70 cm long (22" to 27"). 
•  The tail and webbed feet are used to propel and steer the beaver. 
•  Their tails are flat, scaly, and blackish in colour, and are approximately 30 to 40 cm 
•  long. Beavers use their tail to slap the water to warn others about an emergency. 
•  Their front feet have claws to help them dig, and to comb and clean their fur. Their hind feet are  webbed to   help them swim and comb and clean. 
•  Their short legs do not allow them to walk very fast. They waddle. 
•  Beavers can close their nose and ears with a special muscle to keep out water. 
•  Their small noses can smell danger and they have good hearing. 
•  They have three eyelids (upper, lower, and a clear eyelid that allows them to see under water). 
•  They can see in the day and have trouble seeing in the night like people. 

THE BEAVER’S COAT 

•  The beaver’s coat is golden brown or dark brown. 
•  Beavers have two coats: a warm under fur which is a woolly layer with shorter fur, and a coat that is  oily and has long fur called guard hairs. This fur is reddish in color. 
•  Beaver fur has been used for pelts. 

THE BEAVER’S TEETH 

•  A beaver’s teeth are strong and never stop growing. 
•  Beavers have four orange, sharp teeth at the front for gnawing, and sixteen back teeth for chewing. 
•  Their furry lips close behind their two top front teeth to keep water out. 
•  Their powerful chewing muscles are stronger than those in humans. 
•  Beavers can chew while standing on their hind legs. 
•  The marks they make on trees look like those an axe would make. 
•  Beavers can chop down trees 8 cm in diameter. 
•  They must gnaw or the teeth grow too long, curve in, and then they die from starvation. 

FOOD 

•  Beavers are herbivores. They chew bark, and gnaw on and grind trees. 
•  They use their sharp claws to dig up food. 
•  Their favourite foods are poplar, willow, aspen, cherry, maple, pond weed, birch, grass, water  lilies, fern, roots, and water plants. 
•  In the fall, beavers cut branches and twigs in order to store food for the winter. 
•  They store their food under the water. In the winter, they can eat part of their home if wood is hard  to find. 
•  Beavers also chew the ends of sticks and dry grass to line their home for a bed. 

FAMILY: THE COLONY 

•  The beaver family is very close-knit. 
•  An adult male and female beaver mate for life. 
•  If a mate dies, however, an adult beaver may take another mate. 
•  There are ten to twelve beavers in a colony. 
•  The whole family works together to make a dam. 
•  At one year of age, a beaver is able to build. 
•  The family plays together and makes whistling noises. 
•  Beavers like to rub noses.

FAMILY: OFFSPRING 

•  The male and female breed in January or February and have a litter every year. 
•  The babies are born around April or May. 
•  The female beaver waits ninety days (sixteen weeks, or three months) until the babies are born. 
•  Before birth, the adult male beaver will leave and stay in a burrow as the adult female likes to be  alone. 
•  The baby beaver is called a kit and weighs 1 kg at birth. 
•  Baby beavers are born on their mother’s tail. 
•  The mother can carry the babies in her mouth and walk upright. 
•  At birth, the babies look like their parents. Their fur is light and fluffy, and they can float. 
•  Baby beavers need to stay in the lodge in order to be safe from predators.
•  The babies stay inside the lodge with their mother until they are one month old. 
•  They sit on their mother’s tail to be nursed until they are two months old. 
•  Like human babies, beaver babies wake up and cry to be fed. 
•  They sleep on their backs and sometimes snore. 
•  Beavers can swim within hours of being born, and learn by copying.
•  Kits must practice swimming, rolling, paddling in circles, and doing somersaults, and are soon able  to practice without coming to the surface for a while. They also learn to dive.

HOME AND HABITAT: THE BEAVER DAM 

•  Beavers are great builders and live near forests in streams, rivers, lakes, and marshes. 
•  Beavers can also live in a burrow and in the spring they make their nest/lodges. 
•  They make their homes in ponds from branches, twigs, mud, and stones. 
•  Dams are made in water as beavers are more comfortable in water and safer from predators. 
•  The dam is a wall of branches made of logs positioned across the stream. Water then builds up and  spreads to make a small pond. 
•  The dam is like a plug in a bathtub. It keeps extra water out so that they can build. 
•  Mud is used to glue the sticks in place, somewhat like icing on a cake. 
•  Dams can be 2.5 m to 5 m wide.

HOME AND HABITAT: THE BEAVER LODGE 

Images:Wikipedia

•  The beaver’ home is called a lodge.  
•  The lodge is both under water and floating above. 
•  Beavers create a tunnel under water to get in and out of their home. 
•  When they make their homes, they drag logs and to the pond and float them down to the dam. 
•  The canal can be 200 m long. 
•  They busily chop down trees and drag them to their destination. 
•  Often, beavers have trouble reaching the top of their lodge, but this allows for more fresh air to    enter the lodge. 
•  When they are finished, they use their special oil to mark their territory. 
•  Beavers usually stay in the lodge during the winter as they stay warmer. 
•  They like to keep their lodge clean, and make their bed each day with chewed-up branches. 
•  When the wood runs out, they move. 

EFFECTS ON THE ENVIRONMENT: PROBLEMS CAUSED BY BEAVERS 

•  Beavers can change their environment to suit their needs. 
•  Beavers like to find a forest area with a stream running through. 
•  Narrow, flowing waters (shallow streams and river channels) are used for building dams. 
•  Beavers cut trees and shrubs to use for building materials and food. 
•  They tend to use some types of trees, such as birch, more than others. This causes problems for  people who also use these trees. 
•  Beaver dams cause the water behind them to flood the land. This creates a pond. 
•  Often, dams are built in areas where people live. If the pond floods the land, nearby farm crops,   farm ponds, and recreational areas are damaged. 
•  Beavers also burrow into the ground on the sides of the pond. This can cause erosion (a wearing away  of the earth). 

EFFECTS ON THE ENVIRONMENT: HOW BEAVERS HELP 

•  The beaver dam causes a pond to form. The pond protects the beaver. 
•  The beaver pond also provides homes for plants, animals, and insects. 
•  Because the insects are food for birds and other animals, they are attracted to the pond. 
•  A new community of ten forms near the beaver pond. 
•  Some animals that can be found in and around a beaver pond include 
•  dragonflies   - muskrats 
•  mosquitoes    - frogs 
•  turtles       - birds 
•  raccoons      - otters 
•  ducks         - moose 
• After many years, the dam starts to break down. As a result, the pond drains and becomes a marsh. 
• The marsh dries and becomes a meadow. 
• Grasses and small trees begin to grow in the meadow. 
• In time, the area that was once a pond becomes a forest again. 

PREDATORS AND ENEMIES 
 The pond, dam, and lodge help to protect the beaver from predators. While they are in the water or  lodge, they are safe. 
 When they are out on land cutting trees and feeding, they are in danger of being killed. 
 Because beavers cannot move as easily on land, they stay close to the pond. 
 When enemies are nearby, beavers slap their tails on the water to warn other beavers. 
 Many animals use the beaver as a food supply, such as 
 wolves  - wolverines 
 foxes   - coyotes 
 bears   - domestic dogs 


Other animals hunt and kill baby beavers. They include 
 otters   - fishers (related to weasels) 
 hawks  - eagles 
 owls 


Humans are a major enemy of the beaver.They hunt and trap the beaver for its fur, which is very valuable. 
To prevent any flooding of the land, people kill beavers to stop them from building dams and lodges. 
Both beaver testicles and castoreum, a bitter-tasting secretion with a slightly fetid odor contained in the castor sacs of male or female beaver, have been articles of trade for use in traditional medicine.