Beaver is a hardworking builder.

The common beaver is a large semi-aquatic animal, a representative of the rodent order. The common beaver is also called the river beaver. The Beast impresses with his skills: he is an experienced builder, an excellent owner and an exemplary family man. The common beaver is the second largest rodent in the world. In this article you will find a description and photo of the common beaver, learn a lot of new and interesting things about these rodents.

Beavers are the second-largest rodents in the world!

What do beavers look like?

Before I tell you what beavers look like, I want to make a little clarification. Very often using the words beaver and beaver, people mean the same thing — that is, directly to the rodent itself. But these two words have different meanings. So, a beaver is the name of an animal, and its fur is called a beaver.

So what do beavers look like? The common beaver looks like a large rodent. The body length of the animal reaches 1 meter, height — up to 35 cm, with a body weight of 32 kg. The length of the beaver’s tail is up to 30 cm, and the width is up to 13 cm. An amazing fact of these rodents is that females are larger than males.

The common beaver has short legs and a squat body. The hind legs of the river beaver are much stronger than the front ones. The second finger of the hind paws has a claw that is forked — with it the beaver combs its fur like a comb. These animals carefully look after their “fur coat”.

On its paws, the rodent has swimming membranes and strong thickened claws. Beavers look quite unusual because of their amazing tail. The tail of a beaver resembles an oar, it is flat, hairless and covered with horny scales.

The common beaver has a large head with a narrow muzzle, small eyes and protruding front incisors. Beaver teeth are special, they are covered with strong enamel, grow all their lives and sharpen themselves. The common beaver has small and short ears that are barely visible in the thick fur. Despite this, the animal has excellent hearing.

Beavers look like real fur barons, because they have beautiful shiny fur. The beaver’s fur has two layers, which keeps this rodent warm and dry in cold winters. The first layer of the beaver’s coat consists of coarse long hair, and the second is a very thick silky undercoat. Also, the river beaver is protected from the cold by the presence of a fatty layer under the skin.

Beavers look inconspicuous due to their coloration. The fur of the common beaver has a light chestnut or dark brown color, sometimes even black. The tail and limbs of the animal are black. The tail of the common beaver has wen and special glands.

The odorous substance produced by the tail glands of a rodent is called a beaver stream. And the secret of wen contains all the information about the owner, carries information about his age and gender. A reference point for other beavers about the boundaries of the territory of the settlement is the smell of the beaver stream, which is unique for each individual. In the wild, the common beaver lives an average of 15 years.

Where do beavers live?

Beavers live in Europe (Scandinavian countries), France (lower Rhone), Germany (Elbe river basin) and Poland (Vistula river basin). Also, beavers are found in the forest and forest-steppe zones of the European part of Russia, in Belarus, in Ukraine.

In Russia, the beaver lives in the Northern Trans-Urals. Beavers live scattered in the upper reaches of the Yenisei River, in the Kuzbass (Kemerovo region), in the Baikal region, in the Khabarovsk Territory, in Kamchatka, in the Tomsk region. In addition, beavers are found in Mongolia and Northwest China.

Beavers live with full equipment for a semi-aquatic lifestyle. Their ear holes and nostrils close underwater. And special nictitating membranes close their eyes, which allows them to see well in the water. The oral cavity is designed so that water does not get into it while the animal is working under water. The function of the steering wheel in the water is performed by the tail of the beaver.

Beavers live, preferring to populate the banks of calm rivers and lakes, ponds and reservoirs. They avoid fast and wide rivers, as well as reservoirs that freeze to the bottom in winter. For these rodents, the presence of soft hardwood trees, the presence of aquatic, herbaceous and shrubby vegetation in coastal zones and along the banks of the reservoir is important.

Beavers dive and swim well. Thanks to their large lungs, they can stay under water for up to 15 minutes and swim up to 750 meters during this time. Therefore, beavers feel more confident in the water than on land.

How do beavers live?

Beavers live in families (up to 8 individuals) or singly. The family consists of a married couple and young beavers (broods for the last two years). The same site can be used by a family for many generations. Small reservoirs are occupied by an idle beaver or one family. Larger reservoirs accommodate several families, and the length of each individual family plot along the coast ranges from 300 meters to 3 km. Beavers live near water and do not move more than 200 meters from the coastline.

The length of the family plot depends on the abundance of food. In places where vegetation is abundant, the areas of these animals can border on each other and even intersect. Beavers mark the boundaries of their territories. They communicate using scent marks. Beavers communicate with each other using postures, tail slaps on the water, and whistle-like calls. In case of danger, the beaver loudly slaps its tail on the water and dives. Such a clap sets off an alarm for all beavers within earshot.

Beavers are active at night and at dusk. In the summer, they leave their dwellings at dusk and work until dawn. In autumn, beavers prepare for winter and begin to forage. The working day is extended to 10 hours. In winter, beavers live less actively, labor activity decreases and moves to daylight hours. Beavers overwinter, almost never appearing on the surface, but they do not hibernate. At temperatures below -20 °C, the beaver spends the winter surrounded by his family, staying in his warm home.

The beavers are building a new house at the end of August. Lonely beavers do not build buildings, but family beavers work very hard. What is the beaver’s home called? In one settlement of beavers, two types of dwellings are found. In the first case, the beaver’s house is called a burrow. Beavers live in burrows, they dig them in steep, precipitous banks. For safety, the entrance to such a beaver dwelling is always under water. Beaver burrows are a kind of labyrinth that has 4 entrances. The walls and ceiling of the beaver’s burrow are carefully leveled.

The beaver’s residential house inside the hole is located at a depth of up to 1 meter and a little more than a meter wide, with a height of 50 cm. The floor is always above the water level. If the water in the river rises, the beaver raises the floor, scraping the earth from the ceiling. All construction activities of beavers are dictated by their desire for safety and comfort. Where it is impossible to dig holes, houses are built directly on the water in a shallow part of the reservoir. Such a beaver dwelling is called a hut and beavers build these floating houses on the principle of building a dam.

Beaver huts look like a cone-shaped island protruding from the water. The height of such a beaver’s house reaches 3 meters and a diameter of up to 12 meters, the entrance to the dwelling is under water. A beaver hut is built from a pile of brushwood, which is held together with silt and earth. Beavers carefully coat the walls of their dwellings with silt and clay. Thus, the beaver’s hut turns into a strong fortress, and air enters through the hole in the ceiling.

Inside the beaver hut there are passages into the water and a platform that is above the water level. When frosts come, beavers additionally apply a new layer of clay to the hut with the help of their front paws. In winter, the temperature is above zero in the beaver huts, the water in the passages is not covered with an ice crust, and the beavers calmly go out under the ice of the reservoir. In winter, steam rises above the inhabited beaver huts. Beavers are real cleaners, they keep their homes clean, never littering it.

In bodies of water where the water level is variable, beavers build dams or dams. Why do beavers build dams? The beaver dam allows them to raise and maintain the water level in the reservoir, to regulate it so that the entrances to the huts do not dry up. The dam ensures the safety and security of the beaver lodge. Beavers build dams from branches, brushwood and tree trunks, holding them together with clay, silt and other materials. If there are stones at the bottom, they are also used in construction.

Beavers build dams in places where trees grow closer to the shore. The construction of a beaver dam begins with the fact that beavers dive and stick trunks vertically into the bottom, strengthen the gaps with branches and fill the voids with silt, clay, and stones. If there is a tree that has fallen into the river, then it often serves as a supporting frame. Beavers gradually cover it from all sides with building materials. Often the branches in beaver dams take root, which gives additional strength to the structure.

A beaver dam usually reaches a length of up to 30 meters, a width of up to 6 meters, and a height of usually 2 meters, but sometimes up to 4 meters. The beaver dam is a strong structure, it can easily support the weight of a person. On average, the construction of a dam for a beaver family takes about a month. Beavers carefully monitor that the dam remains intact and immediately repair it if damage is detected.

Beavers fell trees to build a beaver dam and forage. They gnaw them at the base, gnaw off branches, and divide the trunk into parts. A tree with a diameter of 7 cm is cut down by a beaver in 5 minutes. A tree 40 cm in diameter is felled and processed by a beaver during the night, so that in the morning only a pointed stump and a hill of chips remain.

The trunk of a tree, over which the beaver has already worked, but has not yet knocked down, acquires a characteristic hourglass shape. Partially fallen tree branches are eaten by beavers on the spot. The rest they demolish or float on the water to the construction site of the dam or their house.

Each year, the beaten paths of beavers are gradually filled with water, forming beaver channels. On them, animals fuse tree food. The length of such channels can reach hundreds of meters. Beavers always keep the canals clean.

The area, which has been transformed as a result of the activity of beavers, is called a beaver landscape. In their ability to change the natural landscape, they are second only to humans. Beavers are one of the most unique animals, because they are able to learn and improve their skills all their lives.

What do beavers eat?

Beavers are vegetarians, they are exclusively herbivorous animals. Beavers feed on bark and tree shoots. They love birch, willow, aspen and poplar. Also eat various herbaceous plants: water lilies, irises, cattail, reeds, and this list includes many items.

A large number of softwood trees is a necessary condition for their habitat. Hazel, linden, elm, bird cherry and some other trees are not so important and significant in their diet. They usually do not eat alder and oak, but use them for buildings. But the beaver eats acorns willingly. Large teeth allow beavers to easily cope with woody forages. Typically, beavers feed on only a few tree species.

In summer, the proportion of herbaceous food on which the beaver feeds increases. In the fall, household beavers begin to prepare tree forage for the winter. Therefore, in winter, beavers feed on their reserves. Their beavers put them into the water, where they retain their food qualities all winter.

The amount of stocks for a family can be very huge. To keep food from freezing into the ice, beavers usually heat it below the water level. Therefore, even when the reservoir is covered with ice, food will remain available for the animals and the family will be provided with everything necessary.

Beaver cubs

Beavers are monogamous, having united once, they live together all their lives and remain faithful to each other. The female dominates in the family. Beavers become capable of breeding at 2 years of age. Offspring bring 1 time per year. The mating season lasts from mid-January to the end of February. The duration of pregnancy is 3.5 months.

In April-May, from 2 to 6 beavers are born. Beaver cubs are born sighted, well covered with hair, and weigh an average of 0.5 kg. After 2 days, beaver cubs can already swim. Beavers take care of their cubs.

At the age of 1 month, beaver cubs switch to plant foods, but continue to feed on mother’s milk for up to 3 months. Grown up beavers usually do not leave their parents for another 2 years, after which the young are resettled.

What is a beaver useful for and what are beavers for?

Beavers are useful in that their appearance in rivers has a beneficial effect on the ecological system. The beaver is especially useful in the construction of its dams. Various living creatures and waterfowl settle in them, which bring fish caviar on their paws, and fish appear in the reservoir. Beavers are needed because their dams help purify the water, they retain silt and reduce turbidity.

Beavers are peaceful animals, but they also have enemies in nature — these are brown bears, wolves and foxes. But the main threat to beavers is man. As a result of hunting, the common beaver was on the verge of extinction by the beginning of the 20th century. Beavers are slaughtered for their fur. In addition, they give a beaver stream, which is used in perfumery and medicine.

To preserve this valuable animal, effective measures were taken to protect and renew the population. By the early 21st century, the beaver population had recovered. Now the common beaver has the status of minimal risk in the International Red Book. Currently, the main threat to it is water pollution and the construction of hydroelectric power plants.

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