Beavers use mud and rocks to build watertight dams made of woven sticks, reeds, branches. They chose their location based on the sound of flowing water. The dams form slow-moving ponds that reduce stream erosion. As a result, this provides a brand new habitat for small fish and other aquatic wildlife. Also, this protects the beavers from invading predators. Beavers build dams to create wetlands lands that do not drain well.
These wetlands produce perfect food for beavers. Most Dams are meters long. Beavers have dexterous front feet allowing them to be experts in holding objects. They also build lodges. These dome-like lodges are often constructed away from the shore. They form islands that can only be accessed from the water. A lodge can have many underwater entrances and many passages to various rooms.
Beavers even make a sort of chimney or skylight when they build their lodges, to allow fresh air in. The walls are insulated. The floor of the lodge is often covered in wood shavings to absorb moisture and provide a comfortable place to sleep. The lodges are homes of beavers. This is the place where they live, give birth, raise their young and store food. They can be up to 6 feet high and as wide as almost 40 feet!
Beavers are nocturnal animals , they become active at night. Their vision is poor; they take cues from the sun and use their whiskers to detect things. Beavers must be able to find objects in dark water and other dim areas such as their lodges. Their eyes have a special membrane that covers them while they are swimming underwater.
With transparent membranes over their eyes, beavers can see very well under the water. Beavers stay busy in the fall gathering food for the winter. On their behinds, at the base of their tails, beavers produce a goo that smells like Vanilla.
It is used for communication and to mark their territory, and this oil makes the fur waterproof. For hundreds of years, the castoreum was used as a flavour enhancement to flavour food and drinks. And in some places, it is found in perfume and processed food as a natural flavouring substance. Since beavers, Castor canadensis, are mostly nocturnal animals, they are rarely seen during the day.
But a visitor might find evidence of the existence of about twenty resident beavers. Beavers are born knowing how to build lodges and dams. They stand on their hind legs and cut down trees, while balancing on their tail. They cut down as many as trees a year, mostly soft-wood trees such as cotton-woods or willows.
This actually helps the groundcrew of Fermilab to curb the growth of unwanted trees. The beavers then start their building by holding large sticks in their mouths and driving them straight into the river bottoms or ponds. Then almost anything that a beaver can find goes into the lodges and dams: sticks, grass, rocks, or even old shoes!
Beavers are fantastic "engineers"! First they build their lodges, which look like six-foot heaps of branches and mud. They gnaw two to five tunnels to be used as entrances and exits. Next, beavers build a dam to raise the water level, which causes water to back up and cover these entrances and exits. The dam is built like a layer cake except that it is held together by mud, not icing, which is smeared on with their paws and noses.
Beavers can build a foot long dam in just one week. In order to breathe fresh air beavers do not apply mud to the peak of the lodge, creating a ventilation shaft. Each lodge contains at least two water-filled tunnels leading from the chamber to the pond so the beavers can enter and exit the lodge underwater without being spotted by predators. The walls of the conical lodge are very strong due to layers of mud and sticks, and are extremely insulated.
Even with subzero outside temperatures it will not drop below freezing inside the lodge due to retained body heat from the family of beavers. However, unlike most of their historic predators, beavers are excellent swimmers. As a result beavers evolved to have a strong preference to remain in or very close to the safety of the water. The need for safety is the primary reason beavers build dams to create ponds.
Beavers typically start building dams in low lying areas with shallow, moving water. They will utilize natural or manmade objects such as a rock outcropping or a manmade stone wall, a constriction in the streambed, a tree stump, etc. So while somewhat predictable, they can select from a wide variety of spots in which to build a dam. Once a pond is formed beavers do not have to travel far on land to gain access to new trees.
The more area their dam floods, the more food they can safely access. Sometimes beavers will even excavate canals over a hundred feet long in order to bring water closer to stands of their favorite trees.
This allows them to swim up close to the trees and retreat to the water quickly if they sense danger. In addition, they use the canal to float edible branches back to the pond. Beavers predictably select sites to build their dams based primarily on topography and food supply.
Preferred sites for damming will be in areas where the dam will flood a large flat area and there are plenty of desirable woody plants for food in the vicinity. Streams that are more than two feet deep or have strong currents are not generally dammed.
Beavers often situate their dams where there are constrictions in the stream flow natural or manmade. This is why beavers have a strong propensity to dam culverts.
For relatively little work they can create a large dam and pond. Beaver pelts are made into clothing items which also contributed to the endangerment of this species.
Beavers are also often trapped in certain regions when their population grows too large. Large beaver populations can be quite destructive to the natural plant and tree life and can result in many animals starving to death. A good balance needs to be maintained to keep beavers from affecting the environment negatively.
These animals are fairly large which makes them a target for larger predators. Young beavers can fall victim to large birds of prey. Predators like cougars, wolves, bears, coyotes, bobcats, lynx, otters, and mink are constantly on the hunt for beavers because they are relatively defenseless and offer a generous foot portion. Dogs can also attack beavers out of fun or as a food source. The biggest predator of beavers is, of course, the human race.
Beavers were nearly hunted to extinction by humans for their fur pelts. These rodents are also greatly affected by water pollution and clearing forests destroyed great parts of their natural habitats. Beavers tend to avoid interaction with humans. When they feel threatened they will almost always retreat into their lodges or hide underwater.
It does however occasionally happen that a beaver may feel threatened or afraid of humans or they may feel territorial if you get too close to their lodges.
If this happens, the beaver may attack you and their bites can be quite vicious. Beavers can also get rabies. If a beaver does have rabies, it will show odd behaviors and may seem tame. A bite from rabies-infected beaver can be fatal should the virus spread to a human. In some regions, it is illegal to keep beavers as a pet but some keep them as pets, especially if these animals were abandoned as kits and needed to be rescued. If you are keeping a beaver then it is important to know what these animals eat.
Pet beavers also need lots of freshwaters to drink and swim in every day. They are semi-aquatic animals and rely on lots of swimming for survival. Beavers are beautiful animals that deserve the best care, especially since humankind has already caused so much devastation to their numbers and threatened their existence.
For the best beaver care, you should offer the right type of foods at the right times. As long as you do this, the beaver in your care or beavers in your environment can flourish and live happy and healthy lives.
Sharing is caring! What do Beavers Eat? Leaves Beavers do prefer bark but they will also consume the leaves of woody plants they enjoy eating. Twigs Beavers do not just consume the bark of trees. Shrubs and ferns In the warmer seasons like summer, beavers will consume more shrubs and ferns than during wintertime. Aquatic plants Being semi-aquatic, these animals spend a lot of time in the water. Grass and crops These animals will also consume a variety of grass types and they often target crops like corn and beans because they enjoy munching on the leaves and stems of these plants.
How to feed beavers Beavers may seem all cute and fuzzy but they can be very dangerous. How much do beavers eat? To the naked eye, beavers can seem quite destructive. What do baby beavers eat? What do wild beavers eat?
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