The common beaver is a large semi-aquatic animal, a representative of the order Rodents. The common beaver is also called the river beaver. The beast amazes with his skills: he is an experienced builder, an excellent owner and 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 and learn a lot of new and interesting things about these rodents.
Before I tell you what beavers look like, I would like to clarify a little. Very often when people use the words beaver and beaver, they mean the same thing - that is, the rodent itself. But these two words have different meanings. So, beaver is the name of the animal, and its fur is called beaver.
So what do beavers look like? The common beaver looks like a large rodent. The animal’s body length 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 the females are larger than the males.
The common beaver has short legs and a squat body. Hind legs river beaver much stronger than the front ones. The second toe of the hind paws has a claw that is forked - the beaver combs its fur with it 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 beaver's tail resembles an oar, it is flat, without hair and covered with horny scales.
The common beaver has a large head with a narrow muzzle, small eyes and prominent incisors at the front. A beaver's teeth are special; they are covered with durable enamel, grow throughout 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. Beaver fur has two layers, which keeps this rodent warm and dry in cold winters. The first layer of beaver fur consists of coarse long hair, and the second is a very thick silky undercoat. The river beaver is also protected from the cold by the presence of a layer of fat under its skin.
Beavers look inconspicuous due to their coloring. The fur of the common beaver is light chestnut or dark brown, 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 rodents is called beaver squirt. And the secret of the wen contains all the information about the owner, carries information about his age and gender. A guide to other beavers about the boundaries of the settlement territory is the smell of the beaver stream, which is unique for each individual. IN wildlife The common beaver lives on average 15 years.
Beavers live in Europe (Scandinavian countries), France (lower Rhone River), Germany (Elbe River basin) and Poland (Vistula River basin). Beavers are also found in forest and forest-steppe zones of the European part of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine.
In Russia, the beaver lives in the Northern Trans-Urals. Beavers live scatteredly in the upper reaches of the Yenisei River, in 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 Northwestern China.
Beavers live with full equipment to lead a semi-aquatic lifestyle. Their ear openings and nostrils close underwater. And special nictitating membranes cover their eyes, which allows them to see well in the water. Oral cavity designed so that water does not get into it while the animal is working under water. The function of a rudder in the water is performed by the beaver's tail.
Beavers live, preferring to inhabit 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, it is important to have trees made of soft hardwood, the presence of aquatic, herbaceous and shrub vegetation in coastal areas and along the banks of the reservoir.
Beavers dive and swim well. Thanks to their large lungs, they can stay underwater for up to 15 minutes and swim up to 750 meters during this time. Therefore, beavers feel more confident in water than on land.
Beavers live in families (up to 8 individuals) or alone. Family consists of married couple and young beavers (broods over the last two years). The same plot can be used by a family for many generations. Small bodies of water are occupied by single beavers or one family. Larger reservoirs accommodate several families, and the length of each individual family plot along the shore ranges from 300 meters to 3 km. Beavers live near water and do not move away from coastline more than 200 meters.
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 each other and even intersect. Beavers mark the boundaries of their territories. Beavers communicate using scent marks. Beavers communicate with each other using poses, striking the water with their tails, and whistling-like calls. In case of danger, the beaver loudly slaps its tail on the water and dives. This clap gives an alarm to all beavers within earshot.
At night and at dusk, beavers are active. In summer, they leave their homes at dusk and work until dawn. In the fall, beavers prepare for winter and begin to prepare food. The working day increases to 10 hours. In winter, beavers are less active work activity decreases and moves during daylight hours. Beavers spend the winter, almost never appearing on the surface, but they do not hibernate. At temperatures below −20 °C, the beaver spends the winter surrounded by its family, remaining in its warm home.
Beavers are building new house In the end of August. Lonely beavers do not build buildings, but family beavers work very hard. What is the name of a beaver's home? In one beaver settlement there are two types of dwellings. In the first case, the beaver's home is called a burrow. Beavers live in burrows; they dig them in steep, steep banks. For safety, the entrance to such a beaver's home is always under water. Beaver burrows are a kind of labyrinth that has 4 entrances. The walls and ceiling of the beaver's hole are carefully leveled.
The beaver's living house inside the hole is located at a depth of up to 1 meter and a width of just over a meter, 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 by scraping soil 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 the shallow part of the reservoir. Such a beaver’s dwelling is called a hut, and beavers build these floating houses according to the principle of constructing a dam.
Beaver huts look like a cone-shaped island protruding from the water. The height of such a beaver house reaches 3 meters and a diameter of up to 12 meters; the entrance to the house is under water. Beaver lodge it is built from a pile of brushwood, which is held together by silt and earth. Beavers carefully coat the walls of their homes 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 lodge there are passages into the water and a platform that is located above the water level. When frosts come, beavers apply additional new layer clay onto the hut using the front paws. In winter, the beaver huts maintain above-zero temperatures, the water in the passages is not covered with a crust of ice, and the beavers calmly go under the ice of the reservoir. In winter, there is steam above the inhabited beaver lodges. Beavers are real clean people; they keep their homes clean, never littering them.
In bodies of water where the water level is variable, beavers build dams or ponds. Why do beavers build dams? The beaver dam allows them to increase and maintain the water level in the reservoir, and regulate it so that the entrances to the lodges do not dry out. 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 areas where trees grow closer to the shore. The construction of a beaver dam begins with the beavers diving and vertically sticking trunks into the bottom, strengthening the gaps with branches and filling the voids with silt, clay, and stones. If there is a tree that has fallen into the river, it often serves as a supporting frame. Beavers gradually cover it from all sides building materials. Often 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 and can easily support the weight of a person. On average, it takes a beaver family about a month to build a dam. Beavers carefully ensure that the dam remains intact and immediately repair it if damage is detected.
To build a beaver dam and store food, beavers cut down trees. They gnaw them at the base, chew off branches, and divide the trunk into parts. A beaver cuts down a tree with a diameter of 7 cm in 5 minutes. A tree 40 cm in diameter is felled by a beaver and processed overnight, so that in the morning only a pointed stump and a pile of shavings remain.
The trunk of a tree, which the beaver has already worked on, but has not yet knocked down, takes on a characteristic “hourglass” shape. Some of the branches of the fallen tree are eaten by beavers on the spot. They demolish the rest or float them across the water to the construction site of the dam or their house.
Every year, the well-trodden beaver routes gradually fill with water, forming beaver channels. Animals float wood food along them. The length of such channels can reach hundreds of meters. Beavers always keep their canals clean.
An area that has been transformed by beaver activity is called a beaver landscape. With your ability to change natural landscape they are second only to man. Beavers are one of the most unique animals because they are able to learn and improve their skills throughout their lives.
Beavers are vegetarians; they are exclusively herbivores. Beavers feed on tree bark and shoots. Beavers love birch, willow, aspen and poplar. Beavers also eat various herbaceous plants: water lilies, irises, cattails, reeds and this list includes many items.
A large number of trees soft rocks is a necessary condition 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 tree food. Beavers typically feed on only a few tree species.
IN summer period the proportion of grassy food that the beaver eats increases. In the fall, economic beavers begin to prepare woody food for the winter. Therefore, in winter, beavers feed on their reserves. Beavers put them in water, where they retain their nutritional qualities all winter.
The volume of supplies for a family can be very huge. To prevent 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 to the animals and the family will be provided with everything they need.
Baby beavers
Beavers are monogamous, once united, they live together all their lives and remain true friend to a friend. The female dominates the family. Beavers become capable of reproduction at 2 years of age. Offspring are born once a 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 beaver cubs are born. Beaver cubs are born sighted, well covered with fur, and weigh on average 0.5 kg. After 2 days, beaver cubs can already swim. Beavers take care of their young.
At the age of 1 month, beaver cubs switch to a plant diet, but the mother continues to feed on milk for up to 3 months. Grown-up beavers usually do not leave their parents for another 2 years, after which the young animals move out.
How is a beaver useful and what are beavers for?
Beavers are useful because their appearance in rivers has a beneficial effect on ecological system. The beaver is especially useful in building its dams. Various living creatures and waterfowl settle in them, bringing fish eggs on their legs, and fish appear in the reservoir. Beavers are needed because their dams help purify water, they retain silt and reduce turbidity.
Beavers are peace-loving animals, but they also have enemies in nature - these are brown bears, wolves and foxes. But the main threat to beavers is humans. As a result of hunting, the common beaver was on the verge of extinction by the beginning of the 20th century. Beavers are hunted for their fur. In addition, they produce a beaver stream, which is used in perfumery and medicine.
To preserve this valuable animal, effective measures were taken to protect and restore its numbers. By the beginning of the 21st century, the beaver population had recovered. Now the common beaver has a minimum risk status 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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Beaver- enough large rodent living along river banks. He is known to be a good swimmer and dam builder. Distributed in North America and Eurasia. It is valued for its luxurious fur and beaver stream, which is used in perfumery, so people have long hunted it. At one time, rodents were even on the verge of extinction.
Appearance
The animal is large, weighs up to 30 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 the animal does not freeze in the water. The tail is interestingly designed; it helps the beaver to “steer” (by the way, 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.
Lifestyle
These rodents live near a reservoir and rarely move far from it. 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. Rodents can live longer than twenty years in captivity, but in nature - about fifteen years.
Nutrition
Beavers are herbivores; they feed on plants growing along banks or in the water. Also love bark different trees. In summer, rodents are not hungry, because there are many plants around. But for the winter we have to make preparations: animals hide tree bark under water.
Construction
To build a dam, a beaver first needs to topple a tree, which it chews with its teeth. Pieces of trees are sent to a construction site, where they are stuck into the bottom of the river. And brushwood is laid on the surface of the water on top of a fallen tree. The beaver's floating home is called a hut; the animal breaks through approaches to it under water. A hut is built when it is impossible to dig a hole. The dam protects the hut during floods so that the home does not flood.
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River beaver , or, as it is otherwise called, ordinary, lives in the territories of Asia and Europe on the banks of reservoirs with non-freezing bottoms, in forests. The abundance of trees, shrubs and grass is very important for these mammals. Therefore, animals can most often be found on small canals, rivers, lakes, and oxbow lakes, and they avoid rivers with rapid currents. The beaver is hard-working and builds amazing natural structures and dams. The ancestors of today's beavers come from Asia, but they were very large - they reached almost three meters in length and weighed more than 300 kg!
Description of the river beaver
The beaver itself is about a meter long, and its flat tail, shaped like an oar, does not exceed 30 cm (but not less than 20 cm, about 15 cm wide), weight adult just over 30 kg. It is the largest rodent in the Old World and the second largest in the world, second only to the capybara. Interestingly, females are slightly larger than males.
The beaver has a strong, squat body, short limbs ending in special membranes, thanks to which the animal can swim. The round head ends with a blunt muzzle with small eyes and ears. The teeth are strong and powerful. Sharp claws on the paws help the beaver comb its fur.
The color of the thick fur is dark brown, light chestnut, and less often black. But the tail is covered with rather sparse hair growing between the horny plates. The beaver is conscientious in caring for its fur, which it constantly lubricates with a special substance secreted by its tail glands. This helps the wool remain waterproof. It was the luxurious fur that caused the animals to be intensively hunted, which is why they were on the verge of extinction.
The life expectancy of these animals reaches an average of 17 years.
The tail value is large: when swimming, it acts as a rudder, and also secretes a special secretion that serves to lubricate the fur. With its tail, the beaver notifies its relatives of danger by splashing through the water.
River beaver nutrition
Beavers- herbivores, in summer time the basis of their diet is tree bark, bush branches, fresh grass. And in winter, strong teeth allow them to feed on tree bark. In summer they make reserves by storing them in water.
Among the trees, their favorite ones are aspen, birch, and willow. They also enjoy eating acorns.
River beaver habitats
Due to mass extermination, the distribution zone of this rodent has significantly narrowed compared to its original range. If previously the beaver lived almost everywhere in Europe and Asia, now it is found exclusively in the Scandinavian countries, in the swimming pools large rivers In France, Poland, Germany, Russia, Belarus, it can be observed in China and Mongolia.
On the territory of the Russian Federation, beavers have survived in Kamchatka, Khabarovsk Territory, Baikal region and some other regions.
River beaver lifestyle
Leads a semi-aquatic lifestyle. They prefer to live in holes, and if swampy terrain makes digging a hole impossible, they build huts from bush branches, which are glued together with silt and insulated with clay. Such a home also guarantees protection from predators. To prevent their homes from being flooded by rising water, beavers build their dams. This also helps prevent the water level from dropping, which will make the hut (burrow) accessible to a predator. For construction, tree branches are used, sometimes whole trunks, connected using earth, silt and clay. Often stones are also involved.
Impeccable hearing allows these rodents to detect damage to the dam and “fix” it in a timely manner.
Beaver – excellent swimmer, he dives well and can survive in the underwater environment for up to 15 minutes. And the entrance to their home is securely hidden under water.
In summer they are most active in the dark, especially at night, but in winter they switch to a diurnal lifestyle. These are very sociable and friendly animals and live in families.
Starts at the beginning of January mating season, which will last until the end of winter. After pregnancy, which lasts on average three and a half months, from 1 to 6 cubs are born. They develop very quickly and at the age of just a couple of days they are capable of independent swimming.
River beaver conservation
River beaver included in the Red Book and is under protection. Hunting for it is prohibited.
Now the number of these animals is not critical, which suggests the effectiveness of conservation measures.
Video about river beaver
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They are striking in their hard work, seriousness and personify order and devotion.
Man made the animal a positive hero of fairy tales and fables about the eternal values of life. You just need to distinguish between consonant words: beaver is an animal, and beaver is the name of its fur.
Features and habitat of the beaver
In the order of rodents, this river mammal is one of the largest, reaching 30 kg or more in weight. The body is squat and elongated up to 1.5 m in length, up to approximately 30 cm in height. Short limbs with five fingers, between which there are membranes. The hind legs are much stronger than the front legs.
The claws are strong, curved and flattened. On the second finger the claw is forked, similar to a comb. This is what the animal uses to comb its beautiful and valuable fur. The fur consists of hard guard hairs and dense undercoat, reliable protection from hypothermia, since it does not get wet well in water.
A layer of subcutaneous fat, which retains internal heat, also protects from the cold. The color range of the coat ranges from chestnut to dark brown, almost black, like the paws and tail.
Because of its valuable and beautiful fur, the animal was almost destroyed as a species: there were a lot of people who wanted to get a fur coat and a hat made from the animal’s skin. Eventually beaver added to the list animals of the Red Book.
The animal's tail is like a paddle, 30 cm in size and up to 11-13 cm wide. The surface is covered with large scales and hard bristles. The shape of the tail and some other features distinguish the Eurasian, or common beaver from an American (Canadian) relative.
At the tail there are wen and two glands for the production of an odorous substance, which is called beaver stream. The secret of wen is to preserve information about the individual (age, gender), and the smell indicates the boundaries of the occupied territory. An interesting fact is that beaver streams are unique, like human fingerprints. The substance is used in perfumery.
In the photo there is a river beaver
On the small muzzle, short ears barely protruding from the fur are visible. Despite the size of the auditory organs, the animal has excellent hearing. When immersed in water, the animal’s nostrils and ears are closed, the eyes are protected by the “third eyelid” and are protected from injury.
The nictitating membrane allows the animal to be seen in dense water. The beaver's lips are also specially designed in such a way that it does not choke and water does not enter the oral cavity when it gnaws.
Large lung volumes allow the animal to swim, without appearing on the water surface, up to 700 m, spending approximately 15 minutes. These are record figures for semi-aquatic animals.
live animals beavers in deep freshwater bodies with slow flow. These are forest lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, and the banks of reservoirs. The main condition is rich coastal vegetation of soft rocks, shrubs and grass. If the landscape is not quite suitable, then the beaver works to change the environment, like a builder.
Once upon a time, animals were distributed throughout Europe and Asia, except Kamchatka and Sakhalin. But extermination and economic activity led to the extinction of most beavers. The restoration work lasts until today, beavers settle into bodies of water suitable for habitation.
The character and lifestyle of the beaver
Beavers are semi-aquatic animals that feel more confident in water, swim and dive well, and on land beaver It has view clumsy animal.
Animal activity increases towards dusk and with the onset of night. In the summer they can work 12 hours. Only in winter, in severe frosts, do they not leave their secluded dwellings. Burrows or so-called huts are places where beaver families live.
The entrances to the burrows are hidden by water and lead through complex labyrinths of coastal areas. Emergency exits ensure the safety of animals. The living chamber is more than a meter in size and approximately 50 cm high, and is always located above the water level.
A beaver can build dams that can easily support a person's weight.
A special canopy protects the place on the river where the hole is located from winter freezing. The foresight of beavers is akin to the professionalism of designers. The construction of huts is carried out on flat areas or low banks. These are cone-shaped structures up to 3 m high made of brushwood, silt and clay.
The inside is spacious, up to 12 m in diameter. At the top there is a hole for air, and at the bottom there are holes for immersion in water. In winter, it stays warm inside, there is no ice, and beavers can dive into the pond. Steam above the hut on a frosty day is a sign of habitation.
For supporting the required level water and preservation of huts and burrows, beavers build well-known dams, or dams from tree trunks, brushwood and silt. Even heavy stones up to 18 kg are found to strengthen the building.
The frame of the dam, as a rule, is a fallen tree, which is overgrown with building materials up to 30 m in length, up to 2 m in height, and up to 6 m in width. The structure can easily support the weight of any person.
The photo shows a beaver hole
Construction time takes approximately 2-3 weeks. Then the beavers carefully monitor the safety of the constructed object and carry out “repairs” as necessary. They work in families, distributing responsibilities as if as a result of precise and error-free planning.
Rodents can easily cope with trees up to 7-8 cm in diameter in 5 minutes, gnawing the trunks at the base. It copes with larger trees, up to 40 cm in diameter, overnight. Cutting into pieces and towing to a dwelling or dam are carried out in an organized and uninterrupted manner.
What animals are beavers? on their farm, as can be seen from their habitat area. Not only the dwellings, but also the channels through which building materials and feed are rafted do not contain excrement or food debris.
Paths, houses, areas for construction - everything is interconnected and tidied up. A special landscape is created, which is called beaver. Animals communicate using special scent marks, sounds similar to whistling, and tail strikes.
A tap on the water is an alarm signal and a command to hide under water. The main enemies in nature are brown ones. But humans have caused enormous damage to the beaver population.
Beaver is an animal- a hard worker and connoisseur of a quiet family way of life. IN free time take care of the fur coat, lubricating it with secretions from the sebaceous glands, protecting it from getting wet.
Beaver nutrition
The diet of beavers is based on plant foods: bark and shoots of soft trees; in summer, herbaceous plants make up a significant part.
The volume of food per day should average up to 1/5 of the animal’s weight. The rodent's strong teeth allow it to cope with various woody foods. They mainly prefer willow, birch, aspen, poplar, and less often linden and bird cherry. They love acorns, plant buds, bark and leaves.
In the fall, beavers store wood food for the winter. Warehouses are located in places under overhanging banks with special storage of supplies. This will allow you to find unfrozen willow, aspen or birch trunks under the ice in winter.
Reserve volumes can be huge: up to 70 cubic meters. for one beaver family. Special bacteria help digestion process cellulose, and beavers' incisors grow throughout their lives.
Reproduction and lifespan
Females dominate the beaver family and are larger in size. Marriage time takes place in winter time, from mid-January to February.
Pictured is a baby beaver
Gestation of the cubs lasts until May; they are born from 1 to 6, weighing approximately 0.5 kg. A brood most often contains 2-4 cubs. Beaver cubs, sighted and covered with fur, after 2 days are already swimming under the care of their mother.
The babies are surrounded by care; milk feeding lasts up to 20 days, and then they gradually switch to plant foods. For 2 years, the young live in the parental circle, and after reaching sexual maturity, their own colony and new settlement are created. In nature, the life of a river beaver lasts 12-17 years, and in captivity it doubles.
Monogamous pairs of beavers with offspring of the first and second years of life form family groups in a populated area with its own habitat structure. Their resettlement, as a rule, has a positive impact on ecological state environment.
There are cases when beaver buildings caused erosion of roads or railroad tracks. But more often animal world beaver enriched with clean reservoirs and inhabited by fish, birds, and forest inhabitants.
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 for this purpose they use membranous hind legs. 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. He will eagerly eat tree bark, roots, shoots, brewer's yeast, nuts, herbaceous plants, mixed feed, fruits and vegetables, and 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.
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