The river beaver lives in the freshwater environment of lakes, rivers, ponds, and streams. This animal was recently on the verge of extinction. This situation has arisen due to the fault of humanity, which likes to wear warm hats and fur coats.
WITH aquatic environment The whole life of a beaver is connected. To make it easier for the animal to swim, there are membranes on its hind legs, and a large tail also helps.
The beaver reaches a weight of up to 23 kg and a length of 135 cm. Females are always smaller than males. The beaver is characterized by a blunt muzzle, small ears and short legs. The beaver's fur consists of several layers: the first layer is coarse red-brown hair, the second is a gray undercoat that prevents hypothermia.
The reservoirs in which beavers live must be located in forest areas, be deep and with slow flow. Animals often create artificial conditions, “making” huge dams from tree branches, algae, and silt.
Beavers diligently build a dam in order to change the direction of water flow. Underwater, a beaver dam can be up to 3 meters thick, and from above it narrows to about 60 cm. The strength of the dam is surprising; it can easily withstand the weight of a horse!
Beavers purposefully change water flow so that water floods dry places and a pond is formed in which the animal will build a hut. Their house resembles an upside down cup. There are 2 rooms in the house: a family of beavers lives in one, this room is filled with rubble. And near the exit, the second room is a pantry with food supplies for the winter. The beaver's house can be seen above the surface of the water. But for protection purposes, the entrance is located under. water.
Schematic representation of a beaver dam and house. As you can see, the house is a separate building.
As expected, there are two exits from the house: the front exit and the emergency exit.
This is all great, of course, but why do beavers need dams? The answer is simple, in winter these rodents remain active and they need a dam of sufficient depth so that they do not freeze to the very bottom. The dam helps raise the water level. In general, you need to be well prepared for winter, otherwise you’ll be in trouble :-).
Film: “Beavers. Great builders." From the series “Alone with Nature.”
Interesting video about the life of beavers. By the way, did you know that beaver dams They have the shape of an arc concave against the flow, and all modern dams built by man have the same shape. And it is no coincidence that an arc concave against the flow can the best way resist water pressure. On last minute Absolutely a blast :)
Film for children: All about animals [Beavers].
Idyllic video: Beaver washes his hair / Beaver Resting.
A beaver can also get along with people without difficulty: “They sheltered a beaver (Beaver Semyon).”
Semyon. Continuation.
A short message about the beaver will tell you what they eat, where they live and how these animals build. A story about beavers for children can be supplemented with interesting facts.
Brief message about beavers
The beaver is a fairly large rodent mammal, known as a dam builder. Distributed in North America and Eurasia on the banks of forest rivers, streams and lakes. They build dams and dams from fallen trees, causing the water level in the dams they create to rise.
Description of the beaver for children
The beaver is a rather large rodent, its weight can reach up to 32 kilograms. Body length is about a meter. He has valuable fur, however, there is no fur on his tail, instead there are scales. When a rodent swims, its fur does not get wet, and it does not freeze in the water. The tail is interestingly designed; it helps the beaver to “steer.”
The animal can spend up to fifteen minutes under water. It has swimming membranes on its paws, thanks to which the animal reaches speeds of up to ten kilometers per hour. There are also sharp claws on the front paws. The rodent's teeth, especially the four front incisors, are sharp; they are real tools and act like a saw.
The beaver family consists of several individuals, about five in total, but they can also live alone. In the fall, beavers work a lot, and in the summer - much less. In winter, they do not leave their homes at all, especially when it is cold.
Beaver lifespan- about 20 years in captivity, in nature - about 15 years.
What do beavers eat?
Beavers feed on the bark and young branches of trees that are specially felled for this purpose, gnawing at the base. But for the winter we have to make preparations: animals hide tree bark under water.
Beavers love to build. As soon as they like the area somewhere, they immediately begin to build. And definitely near water. The fact is that animals feel calm and safer in water than on land.
These water-loving animals can build burrows and huts. In both design options, the exit from the home is under water.
The beaver liked the steep bank - he digs a hole. And if the bank is flat, then the animal builds a hut from branches, sticks, twigs; the animal uses clay and silt as a cementing mortar for the structure.
Many people have heard about him, but not everyone has seen him in person. The consonance of the animal's name with a word such as "good" made it popular in the context of sharing. There is such a comic poem, the beginning of which sounds like this:
“As you know, beavers are kind.
Beavers are full of kindness.
To everyone who wants good things for themselves,
You just need to call the beaver..."
So, let's take a closer look at what these are, where they live and what they eat, and also consider Interesting Facts about beavers.
Who is a beaver?
This is a mammal of the rodent order. The beaver first appeared in Canada, which is where it comes from. This is a trusting, intelligent and hardworking animal.
Earlier Catholic Church considered the beaver to be a fish, for this reason its meat was eaten during Lent. Regarding attitude Orthodox Church To this end, she categorically forbade eating his meat - it was considered a sin.
The beaver is one of the largest rodents; in Europe it ranks first in this indicator, and in the world - second.
For example, an adult male's weight may be the same as that of an eight-year-old child. In addition to the fact that they are famous for their hard work, these animals are also very brave. So, if beavers get very scared, they may attack. But they won’t do it just like that, only in case of danger.
Animal in natural environment habitat can live up to 14 years, but in captivity it is even 2-3 times longer.
How do they look?
He has a squat body and short legs. There are membranes between the toes designed to improve swimming. The beaver has small eyes and short ears. The tail is flat and resembles an oar. Their color is mostly brown, but some individuals can be black. Weight is about 20-30 kg, body length is about 1 meter.
Beavers have a third eyelid to better navigate the water while swimming. Some people think that the tail helps beavers swim, but this is not true. In water, they use their webbed hind feet for this purpose. The tail serves more to maintain balance. With its help, they also regulate body temperature, and it is also a kind of pantry for storing fat. In addition, they slap them on the ground or water, thereby warning each other of danger.
They secrete a special liquid that gives the animal’s fur a water-repellent effect.
Magnificent builders
If you read interesting facts about beavers, you are truly amazed at their ability to build. The dams they built are visible even from space. They show incredible results in their construction. The length of the dams can be 700 meters. But this is not a record yet: a case was recorded when beavers in the state of New Hampshire built a dam that was 1.2 km long. On average, it takes one beaver family a week to build a 10 m dam.
Interesting facts about such an unusual animal as a beaver say that on average, during its life, it can cut down 100 trees and build 50 dams.
They place the entrance to the dwelling under water, and make the mink itself above this level.
Thanks to powerful jaw muscles and sharp teeth, have a great bite force. They are capable of felling even powerful trees, but, unfortunately, this is precisely the reason why many deaths of these animals occur.
Beavers are very skilled builders: their dams are extremely strong and the animals have an amazing sense of choosing the most successful places for their construction.
The amazing animal beaver: interesting facts about it
People always learn something new about them; they are very interesting and kind creatures.
1. These animals try not to stray far from the water and are always near it within 200 meters.
2. Thanks large sizes lungs and liver, they can hold their breath for as long as 15 minutes, which is a record for semi-aquatic mammals. During this time, this small animal can swim a decent distance of 700 meters.
3. And here's another amazing fact: Scientists who excavated the remains of a beaver dating back to ancient times were amazed. Just think, he was the size of a man! The height of the find was 165 cm, and the weight was 60 kg.
4. These animals easily bite through small branches, but can also cope with an entire tree. So, a beaver can chew through about 25 cubic meters per night. cm of some soft wood, like alder, aspen or poplar.
5. If we study interesting facts about beavers, we will find in them a recorded case when a beaver was able to fall thick tree, the diameter of which was about 1 meter.
6. B Ancient Rus' in case of theft of a beaver, a heavy fine was imposed on the thief.
7. When the Indian tribes went hunting, they said a prayer, turning to the Great Beaver.
8. In Latin, the word “beaver” sounds like castor, which is where the name castor oil comes from.
9. Beavers most often die from being crushed by trees, which, however, they often cut down themselves.
10. Interesting facts about beavers describe a case where one of the rodents’ teeth stopped wearing out and continued to grow. It grew to such a size that it began to reach his left eye. But these cases still occur rarely.
11. Monuments were erected to these animals in the city of Bobruisk. The image of this animal is on Canadian coins.
12. In winter, they do not hibernate, but simply become less active.
13. Once upon a time there was a time when these animals were in danger of extinction, however, thanks to the measures taken, the situation was corrected.
Offspring
Beaver cubs live with their parents until they are about 2 years old. They can have up to 5 children at once.
Beavers do not teach their offspring the skills of building a home - this skill is already inherent in them from birth.
In their family, as a rule, there are 5-9 individuals, including parents and their cubs, which, having left them, can live alone for some time. Each family is assigned a certain territory, which is allocated to them for many generations; its area can reach 3 square meters. m.
Beavers are monogamous. The head of the family is the mother. Their homes are always clean and warm.
For the winter, they store a lot of food in the form of tree branches, so they don’t have to worry about hunger.
And we continue the story about beavers.
Interesting facts: what do these animals eat?
Many people believe that their diet consists exclusively of fish, but this is a mistaken opinion: beavers do not eat fish at all. In fact, they are absolute vegetarians. The idea that these animals feed on fish apparently formed due to the fact that they spend a lot of time in the water. But in reality they eat woody plants, it’s not for nothing that they were given powerful incisors. They love to eat the wood of poplar, willow, and birch, and also feed on young, succulent shoots of plants.
Body Features
They are most active at night and at dusk. Some features of its body make life easier for the beaver. The split nail on the second toe allows the animal to comb its fur, and the tail, covered with hard scales, helps the animal burrow through the depths.
Beavers' teeth wear down, and to compensate for this process, their incisors grow at a fairly high rate - about 0.5 cm per month.
Now let's look at whether beavers can be domesticated - interesting facts for children who might want to see this animal next to them.
How to care for it?
The interesting facts about beavers described above concern their life in natural conditions. What about life in captivity? The beaver can also live at home, although it is rarely seen in this capacity. It's not easy to maintain it. A beaver always needs to chew and build something, so he will try to do this within the walls of the house. So it wouldn’t be practical to just put him in an apartment.
It is better to make a large nursery or cage for him. You need to give him wood so he can wear down his teeth. He does not eat meat. Will willingly eat tree bark, roots, shoots, brewer's yeast, nuts, herbaceous plants, compound feed, fruits and vegetables, special feed mixtures.
As a rule, the animal needs to be fed once a day, in the evening. If we talk about the amount of food, the daily norm is about 1 kg.
There should be a small pool next to the beavers, because they are used to living in water.
Basically, these rodents are good-natured towards humans or can treat them with indifference, without showing any emotions. But sometimes there are individuals who show aggression, but these simply need time to get used to it.
Conclusion
Here we looked at interesting facts about beavers. There are many creatures in the world that arouse genuine curiosity among people, for example, among insects, one is the dragonfly, which has survived to this day since Jurassic period. and beavers are, in fact, amazing and sometimes amazing. Did you know that the dragonfly is a predator? And its effectiveness during hunting is 95%? Truly a miniature killing machine.
Beavers are one of the largest rodents on the planet. In nature, there are 2 types of animals: the common beaver, which is spread throughout Eurasia, and the Canadian beaver, which lives in North America.
They are very similar in appearance and habits, but scientists have recently discovered that the species differ at the genetic level: the common beaver has 48 chromosomes, while the Canadian beaver has 40. This difference makes it impossible to cross them.
What does a common beaver look like?
This rodent grows up to 1 meter in length, excluding the length of the tail, which is 0.4-0.5 meters. An adult young beaver weighs on average 30-32 kg, and an old one can weigh up to 45 kg, since these animals grow throughout their lives.
Large head with a narrow muzzle, small eyes and ears, 2 large protruding incisors in front. The fur of the animal is most often brown, but there are dark red, chestnut and even black beavers. Long, shiny, coarse hair on top and a soft, delicate, thick undercoat provide this rodent with dryness and warmth even in harsh winters. Beavers carefully take care of their “fur coat” - they comb it with the forked claw of their hind paws, while simultaneously lubricating it with a special fatty secretion, thanks to which the fur does not get wet in water. A thick layer of subcutaneous fat also protects from the cold.
Five-toed paws have special membranes between the toes and strong thickened claws.
The beaver has an amazing tail - flat, like an oar, without hair, covered with horny scales with a horny “keel” along the midline.
Beavers have special teeth - self-sharpening.
Beaver lifestyle and nutrition
Beavers are semi-aquatic rodents. On land they are clumsy and slow, but in water they are fast, agile swimmers, excellent divers. They are perfectly adapted to water: webbed paws, a flat paddle tail, transparent eyelids that protect the eyes and allow excellent vision under water, labial growths behind the main incisors allow them to sharpen wood in water, while protecting oral cavity. They can stay underwater for up to 15 minutes, sometimes swimming up to 1 km.
These animals are strict vegetarians. They feed on wood, preferring soft rocks– aspen, alder, willow, birch. They also eat leaves, branches, young shoots, sedge, water lilies, and water lilies.
They are very peaceful, prefer to avoid danger, but there are cases of open attack, then the enemy has a hard time - beavers are strong fighters, if they have already entered into a fight (which happens extremely rarely), they fight fiercely and bravely.
Beavers lead a twilight-nocturnal lifestyle. In the wild they live up to 20-25 years, in captivity - up to 35 years.
Beaver family
Matriarchy reigns in the beaver family. The female is the main one, she is also outwardly larger than the male. Once united, they remain true friend friend throughout your life. Scientists studying the habits of beavers have come to the conclusion that even if one of the partners dies, the second often does not acquire a pair again, but remains alone forever.
Mating occurs in water (often under ice) in February. After 3.5 months, from 2 to 6 fur-covered cubs weighing 500 grams are born. Within a few days they can swim; after a couple of weeks they begin to feed on leaves and thin stems, although they do not receive mother’s milk until 3 months.
A complete family consists of the main female, the male father, last year's brood and the current year's beaver cubs. The young leave the family only at 3 years of age. They live very friendly, do not fight for food, and build huts and dams together.
Do beavers have higher education in hydraulic engineering?
Throughout their lives they build dams, choosing the most right places using precise technologies and verified calculations. Scientists are still amazed at such abilities today. It's still not clear how beavers measure distance or weight building material, but they never make mistakes. Their dams are so strong that they can support the weight of a horse. Beavers strictly monitor the integrity of their structures, immediately repairing damage.
For construction, not only the trunks of trees felled by beavers are used (they have a characteristic hourglass shape), but also branches, stones, silt, and clay.
For housing, they dig holes - these are complex labyrinths, or build huts - above-water structures from branches held together with silt and clay. The entrance to the home is always located under water.
Interestingly, “tenants” often settle in the huts and coexist peacefully with the beaver family. This is a water snake water vole, muskrat.
Beavers are amazingly clean animals. They always keep their home clean, rest outside the house, and take leftover food outside.
The territory that beavers use for the construction of dams and lodges has been in the sole use of one family for many decades. Beavers mark “their” places with a beaver stream - a dark, odorous oily liquid. Interestingly, this secret is highly valued by perfumers, using it to give special durability to perfumes.
Today beavers are listed in the Red Book. Active work is underway to restore the population that was practically destroyed for the sake of valuable fur and beaver secretions.
Beaver Information Posted by Savannah
Beavers are the most large rodents Northern Hemisphere, second in size only to capybaras from South America. There are only two species of beavers in the world - European and Canadian. Due to their unique structure, these rodents are classified as a separate family of beavers. Both species have a similar structure and size and differ mainly in coloration details.
European beaver (Castor fiber).
Canadian beaver (Castor canadensis) caught by surprise on winter ice, inquisitively examines the photographer.
Beavers populate all temperate zone Northern Hemisphere, found in Europe, Asia and North America. In the north, the beaver's range borders on the forest-tundra, in the south - on the steppe zone. Beavers are aquatic animals, so they are found only on the banks of water bodies. Most of all, these animals like small rivers with quiet current, streams, creeks, small lakes, beavers can also be found in wetlands of the forest. At the same time, these animals do not live in real (vast and treeless) swamps; you will not see a beaver on the shore mountain river, endless lake, sea or ocean. The reason for this selectivity is that beavers feed on woody vegetation, so one way or another, the reservoirs they inhabit are located in the forest. And here again beavers show their selective taste; they will not live in every forest. The main condition for beavers is that trees should grow as close to the water's edge as possible, which is why small forest streams and lakes buried in thickets are favored by these animals. Slim pine forest, beavers will not settle in a forest growing on a rocky or wide sandy shore.
Beavers are sedentary animals that occupy the same areas of the forest from year to year, and even from generation to generation. At the same time, with a lack of food, housing, anxiety, change hydrological regime beavers may leave in search of a body of water best places for several tens of kilometers. Beavers' residential areas have clear boundaries, which the animals protect from the encroachments of neighbors by leaving odorous marks. For marking, the secretion of the anal glands with a strong musky odor is used, and an additional fixative is an oily secretion. These animals live in pairs, or rather in families, since the brood remains with its parents for the first year of life.
A Canadian beaver, looking for a new place to live, walks briskly along a busy highway.
Beavers are renowned for their unrivaled engineering abilities and are the only animals that actively change environment and adapt it to their needs; even highly developed monkeys do not know how to arrange their habitat this way! First of all, beavers build complex dwellings. The type of dwelling depends on the habitat conditions. If the banks of the river are formed by dense soil, slightly elevated (1-2 m) and steep, then beavers dig a hole on the bank. For safety reasons, the exit of the burrow is located under water; from it there is a passage deep into the shore, which ends in a living chamber. This chamber can have several latrine rooms: there are places for the parent pair and young animals, as well as a special latrine. If the banks of the reservoir are flat, marshy, and the soil is viscous, then beavers build a dwelling right in the middle of the reservoir. To do this, they apply soil (mostly clay) to the center of the reservoir, place several large log trunks on top of this “foundation”, and on their basis they build walls and a roof from small branches. As you can see, during construction, beavers use the same engineering plan as people. Such a structure is called a hut; it rises above the water's edge; in this elevated part of the hut there is a living chamber. Her internal structure similar to that in a hole, the height of the hut can reach 10 m, width 15 m, but the above-water part has a height of only 1-3 m.
But the abilities of beavers are not limited to housing construction alone. These animals actively create for themselves the most comfortable and comfortable conditions existence. The main problem For beavers they are terrestrial predators, and it is for protection against them that beavers build their complex dwellings. But even holes and huts do not save them from the summer shallowing of the reservoir and the need to go ashore in search of food. To protect themselves from all troubles, beavers break through feeding channels that lead from the river deep into the forest, so the beavers do not have to walk on land.
The beaver descends to the river along the feeding path it has trodden.
And in the fight against the summer drop in water level, beavers build... real dams. The construction stages are similar to the construction of a hut: first, the animals apply clay and mud to the bottom of the reservoir, then create a frame from large logs, and strengthen the structure with small branches, clay, and mud. The dam blocks the river bed across and causes a spill of water upstream - this is how a beaver dam (analogous to a reservoir) appears. Thanks to such dams, the area of the water surface increases significantly, the banks become swampy and become inaccessible to large predators. The extensive water surface again facilitates access to aft places In addition, beavers use the dam to... store food. For the winter, these animals prepare a large number of branches that stick into the walls of the dam, sometimes willow branches take root and further strengthen the dam. The animals carefully monitor the condition of their hydraulic structures: they deepen and clear channels, repair the dam (if it leaks) and increase its length. The usual length of the dam is 15-30 m, but structures are known to be 700 m long!
A beaver at work - the animal collects clay and carries it in its paws, carefully holding it with its chin.
Beavers are nocturnal animals; they prefer to build and forage in the dark; it is extremely rare to see a beaver during the day. In general, these animals are extremely careful; having surfaced, the beaver carefully examines the surroundings and will not come ashore until it is convinced of complete safety. If a beaver sees an animal or person on the shore, it immediately warns its relatives of the danger with a loud slap of its flat tail on the water. At this signal, all family members dive under the water and sit out in the hut. The beaver's voice is similar to a quiet whistle, but tail slaps are used much more often for communication.
On the shore, beavers move slowly and clumsily on their short legs, so they try to go onto land as rarely as possible. But in the water they feel free, swim easily, transport branches, dive and play with each other. A beaver can stay under water for 10-15 minutes and, without surfacing, can swim up to 750 m!
A beaver swims to transport an elm branch.
According to popular belief, beavers eat wood, but this is not entirely true. Beavers do not actually eat large and thick trunks, but use them only for construction needs, but beavers like young and thin branches of trees and shrubs. In summer, beavers gnaw small branches, often directly with greenery, in addition, they often eat juicy and green parts aquatic plants(rhizomes and greenery of egg capsules, water lilies, cattails, etc.). Since there are not so many branches within easy reach, the beavers are forced to fell large trees, to get to the inexhaustible pantry - the crown. Beavers do not eat all trees; they prefer hardwoods with soft wood (willow, aspen, birch, poplar, linden, hazel). Beavers also avoid unnecessary labor costs - they do not fell trees with hard and durable wood (oaks, beeches, etc.). Depending on the thickness of the trunk, a beaver can fell a tree from 2 minutes (aspen up to 5 cm thick) to a day (tree 25-40 cm thick), and over big trees beavers often work together. Beavers gnaw a tree in a circle, sitting on hind legs and leaning on the tail. At the same time, they leave a characteristic cone-shaped stump, sometimes such stumps reach a height of 1-2 m (this means the beavers felled the tree in winter, when the snow cover was high). There are known cases of beavers dying from trees falling on them. In general, beavers prefer to harvest food in summer and autumn; in winter, their “logging” instincts are much weaker.
A camera in a special night mode captured a rare moment in the life of beavers - married couple at work preparing feed.
Beavers are monogamous animals and form pairs that last a lifetime. Only a widowed animal can form a pair with a new partner. It is interesting that beavers have a matriarchy, the head of the family is the female. Mating season for beavers it occurs early - in January-February. Since these animals remain faithful to their partner, difficult marriage rituals They dont have. Pregnancy lasts 105-107 days. The female gives birth to 2-5 (usually 3) cubs in the nesting chamber in April-May. Beaver cubs, unlike most rodents, are born sighted and covered with fur; within 1-2 days after birth they can swim, and after 3 weeks they begin to feed on their own. Despite such precocity, the cubs for a long time live next to their parents in the same home and do not leave them before spring next year (and more often only after 2-3 years). This is due to in complex ways food production and construction, which take a long time to master. These animals reach sexual maturity by 3 years, and live in natural conditions for 10-15 years, in captivity up to 35.
Their large size does not save beavers from predators, since the obvious clumsiness of these animals on land makes them relatively easy and attractive prey. Beavers are hunted by wolves, coyotes, bears, and less commonly lynxes.
People have also paid attention to these animals since ancient times. Beavers were primarily valued for their expensive fur, but meat was also used for food. In the Middle Ages, because of their scaly tail, beavers were equated with fish, so they were also hunted during fasting. Beaver secretion (the so-called “beaver stream”) is used in the perfumery (less often in the food) industry as a flavor fixer. On both continents, beavers were treated with a kind of respect, so hunting for these animals was strictly limited; for example, in Europe there were separate areas for their extraction, in which only specially trained people, beaver hunters, could hunt. Thanks to this, beavers maintained their numbers for many centuries, but with the disappearance of the feudal system, the traditions of thrifty hunting for these animals also fell into oblivion. Beginning in the 17th century, beaver hunting began to acquire a predatory character. Beavers have become rare in both Europe and North America (where the gentle hunting of the indigenous Indians was replaced by the hunting of professional trappers). Several tens of thousands of European and Canadian beavers were killed annually, as a result of which by the beginning of the twentieth century both species became rare, the situation was especially threatening European beaver, whose population consisted of 800-900 individuals.
A married couple of beavers in a nursery.
The rescue of beavers began in the 30s, when several reserves were created for their protection, and technology for keeping them in captivity was developed. It turned out that beavers, despite their peculiar way of life, get along well in captivity and can even reproduce. Of course, raising beavers in industrial scale does not seem possible, but this turned out to be quite enough to restore numbers and resettlement in their former habitats. To restore numbers Canadian beaver it was enough to organize several national parks, since the territory North America was less affected by people. Now both species are in good condition and are rare only in certain areas.
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