River beaver. Common beaver (Castor fiber)
The common beaver (Latin name: Castorfiber) is a prominent representative a detachment of rodents from the beaver family. It is the largest rodent in the world after the capybara.
Quite often, in colloquial speech mammals are called “beaver”, however, if you turn to S.I. Ozhegov’s dictionary, you can find out that this word is used to mean the fur of a rodent.
Appearance
The semi-aquatic animal reaches a length of 1.3 meters and a weight of up to 32 kg. Females larger than males. Distinctive feature The mammal's tail is up to 30 cm long and has no hair. It resembles an oar and is covered with large scales and bristles.
The beaver's short, powerful hind legs are equipped with webbing between the toes. Large claws are curved and flat in shape. A remarkable fact is that the claw is forked on the second toe of the hind paw. With its help, mammals take care of their thick fur by combing it. The beaver is a very clean and tidy animal that regularly monitors the condition of its skin.
Beautiful beaver fur is considered valuable. It consists of coarse guard hairs, the down is very thick and silky. The color can have different shades of brown, ranging from light chestnut to brown. Black representatives of beavers are found in nature. The rodent sheds from last days spring and before the beginning of winter.
The rodent has small ears that are almost invisible among the fur, but it has excellent hearing. Relatively small eyes are equipped with a transparent nictitating membrane, the so-called “third eyelid”. This device protects the animal’s organs of vision when diving under water, allowing it to see clearly in the aquatic environment.
The protrusions on the lips close behind powerful incisors protruding forward, which makes it possible to gnaw underwater.
In the anal area there are wen, paired glands and a beaver stream, which secretes a strong-smelling secretion - this is a red-brown, yellow-brown or dark soft mass. With its help, the beaver marks its territory and communicates.
Lifestyle
The banks of slow-flowing rivers, lakes, ponds and other calm bodies of water serve as a haven for rodents. Mammals avoid fast and wide rivers. In addition, they do not settle on the banks of shallow bodies of water, which can freeze to the very bottom in winter.
Representatives of the rodent order are excellent swimmers and divers. Air supplies are provided big lungs and liver. A beaver can stay under water for up to 15 minutes, while covering a distance of more than 700 meters. However, on the shore the animals are very slow and clumsy.
Mammals live mainly in families consisting of an average of 5-8 individuals, including a pair of adult beavers: a male and a female, young rodents - the offspring of the current and previous years. There are also solitary beavers.
Rodents are monogamous animals; the female dominates the family. Once a year she gives birth to offspring. The mating season of beavers occurs at the end of January and lasts until the end of February, while mating itself takes place in water under a layer of ice.
Pregnancy lasts about three and a half months. A brood can range from one to six young, which are born half-blind, but well furred. Their average weight is 450 grams. After just a couple of days, little beavers are able to swim. When they reach three or four weeks of age, the transition to a plant-based diet occurs. But the female continues to feed the beaver cubs with her rich milk for up to three months. Rodents reach sexual maturity only at the age of two years.
Important terms comfortable stay animals is the presence deciduous trees and various bushes on the banks. They also need large quantities aquatic herbaceous vegetation, which constitutes their main diet.
The area of coastal land occupied by a family can serve as a home for several subsequent generations. The length of a family plot on large bodies of water can reach almost 3 km. The length directly depends on the amount of food. Rodents do not go far from the aquatic environment.
If the animal is in danger, the rodent in the water slaps its flat tail on the surface of the water and dives. This behavior serves as an alarm signal for other family members.
Mammals are active at night. In summer, beavers can stay awake until six o'clock in the morning. When the period of stockpiling for the winter begins, in the fall, they remain active until 12 noon. During the cold season, beavers rarely come to the surface from their shelters. IN severe frosts animals are not chosen at all.
It is worth noting that in natural habitats a rodent lives on average 15 years; in captivity this figure doubles. There are cases where beavers lived up to 35 years.
Dams and huts
A skilled engineer who creates structures that demonstrate not only the presence of a highly developed intellect, but also traces of a consciously working mind.
Beavers live in huts or burrows, the entrance to which is located under water for safety reasons. In steep banks, animals make burrows that resemble a labyrinth, which has up to five entrances. The ceiling and walls of the home are carefully leveled and compacted. The living space is made at a depth of no more than a meter, its height is 50 cm, and its height is about a meter. Required condition is that the floor should be 0.2 meters above the water level. When water rises, the rodent lifts the floor, scraping the necessary soil from the ceiling.
Huts are built by rodents in places where it is not possible to dig a hole. They are a pile of brushwood held together by earth and silt. The hut has a cone-shaped appearance and reaches a diameter of 12 meters and a height of three meters. The walls of such housing are carefully lubricated with silt and clay; the result of construction is an impregnable fortress with holes in the water and an air hole in the ceiling.
In reservoirs where there is a change in water level, rivers and streams, beavers build dams, better known as dams. They help regulate the water level so that the entrances to homes are not drained and become easily accessible to predators.
Dams are made from tree trunks, branches, fastened together with clay, silt and other available materials. natural materials, which rodents carry in their front paws or teeth. When the water flows rapidly, stones are actively used.
Rodents stick branches and trunks vertically into the bottom, strengthening the distance between them with branches, and filling the voids with stones, silt, and clay. As a basis for construction, beavers quite often use a tree that has fallen into the water, which is subsequently covered with building material. The shape of the structure depends on the speed of the current. If it is small, then the dam is straight, with fast current the dam is bent towards him. Beavers carefully monitor the condition of the dam and, in case of destruction, repair it, eliminating the leak.
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, most often animals can be found on small canals, rivers, lakes, oxbow lakes, and rivers with rapid current they avoid. 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 the summer, the basis of their diet is tree bark, bush branches, and 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 are preserved 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.
The beaver is an 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 daytime look life. 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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Beavers are one of the most interesting animals on our planet. Self-sharpening incisor teeth help beavers not only cut down trees, but also build homes for themselves and even build dams.
Among the representatives of the rodent order, the beaver ranks second (after the copybara) in terms of body weight, which reaches 32 kg. (sometimes 50 kg) with a body length of up to 80-100 cm and a tail length of 25-50 cm. In prehistoric times (during the Pleistocene era), beavers were much larger, their height reached 2.75 m, and their weight was 350 kg.
Modern beavers are divided into two species: the common beaver, common in Eurasia, and the Canadian beaver, whose natural habitat is North America. Due to the great similarity in appearance and habits between the two populations of beavers, until recently, the Canadian beaver was considered a subspecies of the common beaver, until it became clear that there is still a genetic difference between these species, since the common beaver has 48 chromosomes, while the Canadian one has only 40. In addition, Beavers of two species cannot interbreed.
The beaver has a squat body, five-fingered limbs with strong claws and a wide paddle-shaped tail. Contrary to popular belief, the tail of beavers is not at all a tool for building their homes; it serves as a rudder when swimming. The beaver is a semi-aquatic animal, therefore, much in the appearance of this mammal shows its adaptability to being in water: between the toes there are swimming membranes, especially strongly developed on the front legs, in the eyes of the beaver there are nictitating membranes that allow you to see under water, the ear openings and nostrils close under water, large lungs and liver provide such reserves of air and arterial blood that beavers can stay under water for 10-15 minutes, swimming up to 750 m during this time. Thick layer subcutaneous fat protects against cold.
Beavers are exclusively herbivorous; they feed on the bark and shoots of trees, preferring aspen, willow, poplar and birch, as well as various herbaceous plants (water lily, egg capsule, iris, cattail, reed). In order to obtain bark and shoots, as well as for construction needs, beavers cut down trees, gnawing them at the base. An aspen with a diameter of 5-7 cm can be felled by a beaver in 5 minutes, a tree with a diameter of 40 cm can be felled and cut up overnight. A beaver gnaws, rising on its hind legs and leaning on its tail. Its jaws act like a saw: to fell a tree, the beaver rests its upper incisors against its bark and begins to quickly move its lower jaw from side to side, making 5-6 movements per second. The beaver's incisors are self-sharpening: only the front side is covered with enamel, the back side consists of less hard dentin. When a beaver chews on something, the dentin wears down faster than the enamel, so the leading edge of the tooth remains sharp all the time.
Trees chewed by beavers:
Video about the life of beavers, where you can see how beavers gnaw trees:
Beavers live along the banks of slow-flowing rivers, as well as ponds, lakes, and reservoirs. For housing, beavers can dig holes in steep banks with several entrances, each of which is located under water so that land predators cannot penetrate there. If digging a hole is impossible, beavers build a special dwelling - a hut - right in the water. A beaver lodge is a pile of brushwood held together by silt and clay. The height of the hut can reach up to 3 meters, and the diameter up to 12 meters. Like a hole, a hut is a reliable shelter from predators. Inside the hut there are manholes under the water and a platform rising above the water level. The bottom of the hut is lined with bark and herbs. With the onset of the first frost, beavers additionally insulate the hut with new layers of clay. Air penetrates through the ceiling. In cold weather, clouds of steam can be seen above the beaver lodges. At the very cold weather the hut maintains a positive temperature and even if the reservoir is covered with ice, the ice hole under the hut does not freeze, which is very important for beavers, because beavers store food reserves for the winter, prepared in winter, under the overhanging banks directly into the water, from where they then take them when cold weather sets in .
beaver hut
Beavers live alone or in families. A complete family consists of 5-8 individuals. The mating season for beavers is in winter. Cubs are born in April-May and can swim within one or two days. At the age of 3-4 weeks, beaver cubs switch to feeding on leaves and soft stems of grass, but the mother continues to feed them with milk until 3 months. Grown-up young animals usually do not leave their parents for another 2-3 years. In captivity, beavers live up to 35 years, in the wild 10-19 years.
The head of the beaver family marks the boundaries of his territory with the so-called “beaver stream” - special secretions that were previously actively used in medicine, and are now used to create expensive perfumes.
In case of danger, beavers give an alarm signal to their relatives by striking the water with their tail.
To prevent water from flooding the hut during a flood or, conversely, the reservoir suddenly becoming shallow, beavers often build dams. Construction begins with beavers sticking branches and trunks into the bottom, strengthening the gaps with branches and reeds, filling the voids with silt, moss, clay and stones. They often use a tree that has fallen into the river as a supporting frame, gradually covering it on all sides with building material. The longest dam built by beavers was 850 meters long. If a dam starts leaking somewhere more water than necessary, the beavers immediately seal up this place. Thanks to their excellent hearing, beavers accurately determine the place where the water began to flow faster. One day, scientists conducted an experiment: on the shore of a reservoir, a tape recorder with recorded sound was turned on. flowing water. Despite the fact that the tape recorder was standing on dry land and there was no trace of any flowing water, the beavers’ instinct worked and they immediately covered up the “leak” with mud.
Although beavers may seem like forest pests, their activities actually have a beneficial effect on the ecosystem. For example, the number of ducks in reservoirs improved by beavers is on average 75 times greater than in reservoirs without beavers. This is due to the fact that beaver dams and calm water attract shellfish and aquatic insects, which, in turn, attract waterfowl and muskrats. Birds bring fish eggs on their paws and beaver ponds become more fish. Trees felled by beavers serve as food for hares and many ungulates, which gnaw the bark from the trunks and branches. The sap that flows from undermined trees in the spring is loved by butterflies and ants, followed by birds. In addition, dams help purify water, reducing its turbidity, because silt lingers in them.
Beavers have long been hunted for their valuable fur and beaver stream. As a result, at the beginning of the 20th century, many European countries beavers were completely exterminated, and total number There were only 1,200 beavers in Eurasia. In the 20th century, largely due to active efforts to restore the beaver population in the Soviet Union, the situation began to gradually improve. In 1922, beaver hunting was banned in the USSR, and in 1923 the Voronezh Beaver Reserve was founded, where ideal conditions for beaver breeding. Bobrov from Voronezh Nature Reserve resettled throughout the USSR, as well as in Poland, China, the GDR and other countries. Currently, the number of beavers in Russia exceeds 340 thousand, almost half are of Voronezh origin. The reserve operates to this day; upon visiting it, you can take home photographs of beavers (about 300 of them live here) taken with my own hands. In addition to beavers, the reserve has 333 species of vertebrates.
IN North America beavers were also brought to the brink of extinction, but their protection in the USA and Canada began already at the end of the 19th century and now there are 10-15 million beavers on the American continent, which is many times higher than the number of beavers in Eurasia (where there are about 640 thousand of them according to data as of 2003), however, it is much inferior to the time when the fur trade in America was not yet in fashion (at that time there were 100-200 million beavers in America).
Canadian beavers now live far beyond their borders natural habitat. In 1946, the Argentine government imported 25 pairs of Canadian beavers to the Tierra del Fuego archipelago to begin the beaver fur trade in the region. However, beavers, having found themselves in an ecosystem where they had no natural enemies, multiplied so much that they threatened local forests. Currently, 200 thousand beavers live on the archipelago.
In addition to Argentina, Canadian beavers were brought to Sweden and Finland, from where beavers moved to Northwestern Russia, where they began to compete for territory with Eurasian beavers. The number of Canadian beavers in North-West Russia can reach up to 20 thousand individuals.
In Russian there is a word "beaver", but it is not a synonym for the word "beaver". "Beaver" is an animal, and "beaver" is the fur of a beaver.
, Glires) - a genus of mammals from the order of rodents, distinguished by a wide, horizontally flattened and scaled tail and the fact that the toes on the hind legs are connected to each other by a swimming membrane.
The red-brown incisors are very strongly developed and protrude significantly outward; the upper two with a wedge-shaped crown; the molars, of which there are eight in each jaw, namely four on each side of the upper and lower jaws, are provided with projections of enamel. The legs are short, five-toed; on the second toe of the hind legs there is a double claw. Only one species is known: the beaver river, or ordinary (S. Fiber), resembling a badger in size and awkward body shape, having 80-90 sant. and longer, so it is one of the largest rodents. B. is red-brown or blackish in color above, lighter below, white, yellow or spotted varieties are also found; the tail is brown-black. Its body is thick, laterally compressed; the back, especially during rest, is convex. The head is rounded and pointed at the front, resembling the head of a rat; the ears are very small and almost completely hidden in the fur; the eyes are located on the sides of the head, small, with a dark blue rim and a vertical pupil; the nose is wide and naked, with large nostrils that can be closed. The neck is short and thick. The wide and flat tail is covered with hair at the base, and the rest with scales, between which there are single hairs. Currently, B. lives in communities along the banks of large rivers in North America, Siberia and European Russia (on the Vistula), and occasionally occurs alone along big rivers Western Europe (Rhone, Elbe, Rhine, Vistula). Previously, B. was found much further south, for example, in Western Asia - on the river. Euphrates and even in India; now, as a result of intensified persecution, this animal is becoming less and less common even in the North, especially in North America, although up to 150,000 skins are still traded annually from this country, each with an average price of 4-5 rubles. ser.
B. feeds on young shoots, bark and roots of trees. It moves awkwardly on the ground, but swims and dives well. The most remarkable feature of B. is their house-building and social life, about which, however, many exaggerated and implausible things are often told. To protect from the winter cold and from the pressure of water, B. buildings are erected; if the strength of one individual is not enough for this purpose, then the work is performed by the whole society. They erect artless, bluntly cone-shaped structures consisting of layers of branches, grasses, silt and stones and protruding 1.50-1.60 m above the surface of the water. The building is erected in two floors: the upper dry one, located above the water, serves as housing, and the lower one is underwater, for storing vital supplies. The lower floor has an exit located under water. In still water, beavers begin building directly, without any preparatory work, but in running water they first build a dam to keep the water at the same height. These dams are made of poles, the spaces between which are filled with stones and silt; At the base, such dams are from 3 to 4 meters wide and are sometimes built over a fairly significant length. The wood needed for buildings is obtained by gnawing with teeth the trunks of bushes and even fairly thick trees growing along the banks; their teeth are so strong that they can immediately bite through a branch an inch thick. In addition to cone-shaped water dwellings, in which 2-3 families usually live together, B. always have burrows located near the shore and with access to the water. If their construction is interfered with, they live in these holes; in the same way, they settle in such burrows even when they live alone. With the approach of cold weather, B. gather in large number and begin to repair old dwellings, and, if necessary, to build new ones. B. lives in societies only in winter, and in summer most of spends time alone. The beaver is very shy and comes out of its dwellings only at night. The female annually lays 2-5 blind, but fur-covered cubs, which she takes great care of. Young beavers separate from their parents only in the third year of life. B. lives 30-40, even 50 years. He is harmful in that he spoils the trees around his home, but this harm is more than compensated for by the benefits that he brings. B. is hunted partly for his valuable fur with a thick undercoat and a long, shiny edge, and partly for the sake of beaver stream, a substance with a peculiar penetrating odor that is used in medicine. This substance is secreted in two bags located on the sides of the anus. Previously it was also used in medicine oily beaver substance (Pinguedo or Axungia Castorei), placed in 2 oil bags located on the side of the beaver bags and under them. River beaver fur is very beautiful and good for fur coats. Important trade value It also has beaver undercoat, which is used for making hats and which can yield up to 1 ½ pounds from one good beaver skin. The skins of B., living alone in coastal burrows, are very worn out and are of little value; Only B., living in societies, provide beautiful furs and good undercoat, but their summer skins are much worse than winter ones. The latter are always fluffier and have thicker and darker hair.
From the river, or real, beaver, two animals should be distinguished, also called beavers, but having nothing in common with it: the beaver swamp (Myopotamus coipus, see Swamp beaver), belonging to the order of rodents, and beaver sea (Enhydris marina, see Sea otter), belonging to the order of carnivores, namely the family thin, or martens (Gracilla s. Mustelina).
The article reproduces material from the Great Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron.Beaver,
1 ) (Castor), mammal, genus of rodents. The beaver's body is clumsy, its tail is flattened on top and covered with scales, its legs are short, five-toed, and its hind toes have a swimming membrane. Beavers live in small colonies in middle lane(between 39° and 68° N latitude) Northern Hemisphere. They are famous for their amazing dams and dwellings; for the most part, these buildings are built jointly by the entire colony. Typically, dwellings have the appearance of a regular heap up to 3 m in height, built in two floors: the upper one is dry, used for housing, and the lower one, underwater, stores supplies; from it there is an outlet under the water. In order to ensure that the exit is always closed with water, B. build dams across the river from chewed tree trunks and branches, filling the gaps with silt and stones. Dams can be up to 4 m wide and several tens of m long. Branches, tree trunks or stones are also used to build a dwelling. The living area of each building is divided between 2-3 families; In summer, beavers spend most of their time alone. Growing young B. usually stay in the family for up to 3 years. The lifespan of beavers is up to 50 years. Beavers are hunted for their fur, which is highly prized. Its color is chestnut-brown. Most furs are mined in Canada and Siberia. There are 2 known species: European beaver, or river beaver ( C. fiber), up to 95 cm in length. IN lately it has been exterminated almost everywhere, but is partially preserved in the West and North-West. USSR, in the Central Black Earth Region, as well as in some places Western Europe- along the rivers: Elbe, Danube, Rhone, and in the West. Siberia. The Canadian beaver differs little from the European one; lives east of the river. Missouri. In addition to fur, beavers are valued for their meat (the tail is considered a special delicacy) and for a special substance - beaver stream (see), used in medicine.
2 ) Swamp beaver ( Myocastor coypu), or coipu. Family rodent eight-toothed, body 45-90 cm long. The fur is black-yellow-brown, thick and soft, highly valued. Meat is eaten. Lives in Yuzh. America.
Literature:
- Ognev S.I., Vertebrates of the Voronezh province, M., 1923;
- Keppen F.P., On the previous and current distribution of the beaver within Russia, St. Petersburg, 1902;
- Charlemagne, News about bob-piv", "Ukrainian. willing and fisherman”, No. 10, 1925 (with detailed bibliography).
N.B., N.D
The article reproduces text from the Small Soviet Encyclopedia.Beaver (mammal of the rodent order).
Beaver (Castor fiber), a mammal of the rodent order. B. is well adapted to a semi-aquatic lifestyle. Body length up to 100 cm, tail - up to 30 cm; weighs up to 30 kg. The tail is flattened from top to bottom, up to 15 cm, almost hairless, covered with large horny scutes. The toes on the hind limbs are connected by a wide membrane. It has valuable fur, which consists of shiny coarse guard hairs and very thick silky underfur. The color ranges from light chestnut to dark brown, sometimes black (melanism). In early historical times, B. was widespread throughout most of Europe, Southern Siberia and part of Central Asia, as well as almost all of North America (American B., apparently special kind C. canadensis).
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 shore 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.