They amaze with their hard work, seriousness and personify order and dedication.

The man made the animal a positive hero of fairy tales and fables about the eternal values ​​of life. Only one should distinguish consonant words: a beaver is an animal, and a 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 about 30 cm in height. Short limbs with five fingers, between which there are membranes. The hind feet are much stronger than the front ones.

The nails are strong, curved and flattened. On the second finger, the claw is bifurcated, similar to a comb. This is what the animal uses for combing beautiful and valuable fur. Fur consists of coarse guard hair and dense undercoat, reliable protection against hypothermia, since it does not get wet well in water.

A layer of subcutaneous fat, which retains internal heat, also saves from the cold. The color range of the coat is from chestnut to dark brown, almost black, like paws and tail.

Because of the valuable and beautiful fur, the animal was almost destroyed as a species: there were a lot of people who wanted to find a fur coat and a hat made of animal skin. Eventually beaver added to the list animals Red Book.

The tail of the animal is similar to an oar 30 cm in size and up to 11-13 cm wide. The surface is covered with large scales and stiff bristles. The shape of the tail and some other features distinguish the Eurasian or common beaver from the American (Canadian) relative.

At the tail, there are wen and two glands for the production of an odorous substance, which is called a beaver stream. The secret of wen consists in storing information about the individual (age, sex), and the smell indicates the boundaries of the occupied territory. An interesting fact is the uniqueness of the beaver jet, like human fingerprints. The substance is used in perfumery.

In the photo, a river beaver

On a small muzzle, short ears, barely protruding from the wool, are visible. Despite the size of the auditory organs, the animal's hearing is excellent. When immersed in water, the animal's nostrils, ears are closed, the eyes are protected by the "third eyelid" and are protected from injury.

The blinking membrane allows you to see the animal in dense water. The beaver's lips are also specially designed in such a way that it does not choke, water does not enter the oral cavity when it gnaws.

Large lung volumes allow the animal to swim up to 700 m without appearing on the water surface, spending about 15 minutes. For semi-aquatic animals, these are record figures.

Live animals beavers in deep freshwater bodies of water with a slow current. These are forest lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, and the banks of reservoirs. The main condition is rich coastal softwood vegetation, shrubs and grass. If the terrain is not quite right, then the beaver works on changing the environment like a builder.

Once upon a time, animals were settled throughout Europe and Asia, except for Kamchatka and Sakhalin. But the extermination and economic activity led to the extinction of a large part of the beavers. Restoration work continues to this day, with beavers settling in habitable reservoirs.

The nature and lifestyle of the beaver

Beavers are semi-aquatic animals that feel more confident in the water, swim well, dive, and on land beaver It has view clumsy animal.

The activity of animals increases towards dusk and with the onset of night. In the summer they can work for 12 hours. Only in winter, in severe frosts, they do not leave their secluded dwellings. Burrows or so-called huts are the places where beaver families live.

The entrances to the burrows are hidden by water and lead through intricate labyrinths of coastal areas. Emergency exits ensure the safety of animals. The living chamber is more than a meter in size and about 50 cm high, 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 burrow 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.

Inside, they are spacious, up to 12 m in diameter. At the top there is an opening for air, and at the bottom there are manholes for immersion in water. In winter, it keeps warm inside, there is no ice, beavers can dive into the reservoir. Steam over the hut on a frosty day is a sign of habitability.

To maintain the required water level and preserve huts and burrows, beavers erect 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 long, up to 2 m high, and up to 6 m wide. The structure can easily support the weight of any person.

In the photo, the beaver burrow

The construction time takes about 2-3 weeks. Then the beavers carefully monitor the safety of the erected object and carry out "repairs" if necessary. They work as families, distributing responsibilities, as if as a result of accurate and error-free planning.

Rodents easily cope with trees up to 7-8 cm in diameter in 5 minutes, gnawing at the trunks at the base. It can handle larger trees, up to 40 cm in diameter, overnight. Cutting into parts, towing to a dwelling or a dam are carried out in an orderly and uninterrupted manner.

What animals are beavers in their household, seen in the habitat. Not only dwellings, but also the channels through which building materials and feed are floated, do not contain excrement and food residues.

Paths, houses, building plots - everything is interconnected and cleaned. A special landscape is created, which is called beaver. Animal communication takes place with the help of special odorous marks, sounds emitted, similar to a whistle, tail blows.

A slam on the water is an alarm signal and a command to hide under water. The main enemies in nature are brown. But the huge damage to the beaver population was caused by humans.

Beaver is an animal-worker and connoisseur of a quiet family lifestyle. In their free time, they take care of the fur coat, lubricating it with secretions from the sebaceous glands, protecting it from getting wet.

Beaver food

The diet of beavers is based on plant food: bark and shoots of soft trees; in summer, herbaceous plants constitute a significant part.

The amount of food per day should be on average up to 1/5 of the weight of the animal. The rodent's strong teeth allow it to cope with a variety of woody foods. They mostly prefer willow, birch, aspen, poplar, less often linden, bird cherry. They love acorns, plant buds, bark and leaves.

In the fall, beavers harvest wood fodder during the winter. The warehouses are located in places under the overhanging banks with a special flooding of stocks. This will allow you to find non-frozen trunks of willow, aspen or birch under the ice in winter.

The volumes of reserves are huge: up to 70 cubic meters. for one beaver family. Special bacteria aid digestion in the processing of cellulose, and beaver incisors grow throughout life.

Reproduction and life expectancy

Females dominate the beaver family, they are larger in size. Mating time takes place in winter, from mid-January to February.

In the photo is a baby beaver

The gestation period lasts until May, which are born from 1 to 6, each weighing about 0.5 kg. A brood usually contains 2-4 cubs. Beavers, sighted and hairy, after 2 days already swim under the care of their mother.

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 puberty, their own colony and a 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 on the inhabited territory with their own habitat structure. Their resettlement, as a rule, has a positive impact on the ecological state of the environment.

There are times when beaver buildings were the cause of the erosion of roads or railway tracks. But more often animal world beaver enriched with clean water bodies and inhabited by fish, birds, forest dwellers.

Beavers are the largest rodents in the Northern Hemisphere, second only in size to the capybaras of South America. There are only two types of these wonderful animals - Canadian and European. During the Pleistocene, there were also two species - the North American Castoroides ohioensis and the Siberian Trogontherium cuvierе, the growth of the latter then reached a gigantic -165 cm, its weight was 60 kg.

Modern beavers are separated into a separate family (family of beavers) due to their peculiar structure (beavers have a streamlined body, a flat tail-oar, and there are membranes between the toes of their hind legs). The European and Canadian species have a similar structure and size, and differ in color details.

In the XIX century. and the beginning of the XX century. the number of beavers has greatly decreased, because of their fur, the poor animals were mercilessly exterminated by hunters and were on the verge of extinction. For this reason, strict security was organized. Reserves began their work, which are engaged in the protection, study, breeding and resettlement of these animals to places from which they once disappeared. In Russia, beavers are bred in the Voronezh Nature Reserve.

These animals live in family groups, based on married couples (formed for life) and their offspring for the last two years. Therefore, beavers are a prime example of a harmonious monogamous family. They have offspring once a year. The mating season runs from mid-January to the end of February.

Pregnancy of female beavers lasts 105-107 days. There are usually from 1 to 6 cubs in a brood. Beavers appear in April or May.

A place for building good and reliable housing is always chosen by a female (matriarchy reigns in this family), and the grown-up kids, along with their parents, are engaged in all construction work.

Newborn cubs see well, are well downy and weigh about 0.5 kg. After two days, they already know how to swim. The beaver mom strictly teaches her children, pushing them into the underwater corridor by force.

Reckless introduction of an alien species into the natural environment is a danger to the local fauna. So in 1975 the owner of a castle in France launched 2 pairs of Canadian beavers into his park. Soon the species settled in the surroundings, set up dams and flooded floodplain meadows, thereby displacing European beavers. As a result, the national forestry service captured foreigners and distributed them to the zoos.

So how do beavers care for their young? At 3-4 weeks, the cubs switch to self-feeding with soft grass stalks, yellow water lilies and tender leaves, but a caring mother continues to feed them with nutritious milk up to 3 months. In the first year of life, young animals gain up to 10 kg! All members of the family take care of the babies. As they grow up, babies need more and more attention: all children are curious and these are no exception. (Some people wonder what the baby beaver is called? Of course, a beaver!)

The grown-up beavers have not left their parents for another 2 years. Beavers live in families, and a full-fledged unit of their society is a pair of adults and their offspring of the past and current year. Only after reaching the age of two (sexual maturity) do the young beavers begin their free "swimming". This is due to the complex methods of building and obtaining food. It takes quite a while to master all of these. On the shore, beavers move awkwardly (even funny) and rather slowly on their short legs, and therefore try to appear on land as little as possible. It is quite clear that on the ground they can easily become the prey of predators.

Kids learn safety rules from their parents for a long time. But the whole family feels free in the water! Beavers easily swim, splash, dive and play with each other, and, of course, transport the building materials they need - branches. A beaver can stay under water for up to 15 minutes and, without surfacing, can cover a distance of 750 meters! And all thanks to the large lungs and liver.

In the 1930s, several reserves were created for the active protection of beavers, and a technology for keeping them in captivity was developed. It turned out that these animals, despite their special way of life, get along well in captivity and reproduce successfully. This played a decisive role in the restoration of their number and resettlement in the places of their former habitat.

The animals reach sexual maturity by the age of three. Under natural conditions, their life expectancy is 10-15 years, in captivity - 35.

Beavers are nocturnal animals, and therefore they forage in the dark, very rarely they can be seen during the day. These animals are by nature very careful: when emerging to the surface, the animal first carefully examines the surroundings and does not go ashore until it is convinced that it is safe. If a beaver sees a person or an animal on the shore, it immediately warns relatives of the danger by striking the water with a flat tail. After such a signal, all family members dive and sit in their cozy hut (this is a mound of brushwood and soil with a living chamber inside and underwater entrances, the whole family is placed in such a dwelling). For communication, beavers often use just blows with a flat tail on the water, because the voice of this animal resembles rather a quiet whistle. It is much more convenient, and faster, for such an animal to do just that, the more everyone understands that this sound will be heard under water, and, of course, it is safer. All these tricks are to be mastered by the younger generation.

In addition to protection from predators, young beavers will also have to master the skill of tree felling, because this is a very difficult and dangerous business. The second main cause of death of these animals is being crushed by weighty logs. Babies will need to learn to do this carefully, carefully repeating everything (step by step) after the parents. Practice here is the best option!

The family plays a key role in the life of these beautiful and loyal animals, so young animals from childhood learn everything they need to be able to create, maintain and feed their own family. There is a lot to learn from these animals!

Meet the beaver. The largest rodent in Russia and Europe. It ranks second in the world in terms of size among rodents, giving the palm to the capybara.

We all know about its unique ability to gnaw tree trunks and cut them down to build dams. And he does it with incredible dexterity. 3-5 minutes and a small tree with a diameter of a human hand has already been felled.

This is a rather impressive size rodent up to 1-1.3 meters long, and weighing up to 30-32 kilograms. A flattened oar-shaped tail with a length of about 30 centimeters flaunts at the back. From above it is covered not with fur, but with large horny shields. A horny keel runs in the middle of the tail. A beaver needs a tail exclusively for swimming.

To protect against water ingress, the nostrils and auricles are closed during immersion, and the eyes are closed with blinking membranes.

The beaver's main working tool is its large incisors. They are located a little further from the rest of the teeth and are isolated by special labial outgrowths, which allows the beaver to calmly work the tree under water. Since ancient times, beaver fur has been considered one of the most durable and beautiful. Its color ranges from light chestnut to dark brown or even black.

Due to the semi-aquatic lifestyle, swimming membranes are located between the toes. In the anal area there are fatty glands and special glands that secrete a beaver stream. The former allocate a secret that serves as a kind of "passport" for the animal. From it, beavers recognize each other's sex and age. The beaver stream serves to define the boundaries of its areas.

In the genus of beavers or beavers, only 2 species are distinguished. These are the common or river beaver (Latin Castor fiber) and the Canadian beaver (Latin Castor canadensis). The first is widespread in the territory from Western Europe to the Baikal region and Mongolia, and the second in North America.

Few of us have seen beavers wielding huge incisors. They carry out their "carpentry" work both under water and on land. Their performance is amazing. A beaver will fall down a small aspen in 5 minutes, it will take about a night for a thicker and more solid tree. So by morning, instead of a tree with a diameter of about 40 centimeters, there will be only a stump with a pointed top.

They act very quickly. In a second, the beaver manages to make 5-6 movements with the lower incisors and "bite off" a small piece. Moreover, these teeth are self-sharpening, after each felled tree they remain as sharp as they were.

All parts of the felled tree are used. Small branches are either eaten on site by beavers or floated downstream as material to build dams or lodges. Or they refer "with their own hand."

As a result of numerous runs from day to day along the same routes, shallow grooves remain on the territory of the beaver farm, which are flooded with water during the flood period, forming the so-called. beaver canals. On them all the food, that is, the twigs, is rafted. Agree, this is much easier than carrying them yourself.

Now let's look at what buildings beavers are building for themselves. Project number 1 - burrows. They are dug in high and steep banks. The entrance is always located under water, at a depth of 1-2 meters. Having risen above the water level, the hole in the form of a complex labyrinth with several entrances, most often leads to the roots of a tree.

The labyrinth ends with a voluminous living chamber, the walls and ceiling of which are well rammed and reinforced. This chamber is necessarily located higher than the water level. If the water begins to stay, then part of the earth is dumped from the ceiling onto the floor. If the ceiling collapses after such a “house remodeling”, then it is covered with branches and dry grass, as a result of which the burrow smoothly turns into a half-cottage.

Beaver's hut

Project No. 2 - huts made of branches and earth. They are built on shallow and unsuitable places for burrows. The entrance is also underwater. The huts themselves are a large heap of twigs, reinforced with earth and silt. Large huts can reach 3 meters in height and 12 meters at the base. This building may seem to inspire little confidence, but in fact it is a real impregnable fortress.

With the onset of cold weather, its walls are "insulated" with a new layer of clay, and the temperature in the huts throughout the winter is positive. Beavers are clean animals, so they take care of the cleanliness and order in the hut or burrow. They do all their business outside the home.

And finally, project no. 3 - dams or dams. These are the largest-scale beaver structures, some of which are admirable. So, the record is considered to be the platinum built by Canadian beavers on the river. Jefferson (Montana, USA). Its height reaches 4.3 meters, width at the base - 7 meters, and length - 652 meters!

Dam

The dam is built from everything that falls into the paws and teeth - fallen trees, branches, brushwood, stones. All this structure is strengthened with clay and silt.

The place for the dams is not chosen at random, but with engineering precision - necessarily below the beaver "town" and where trees grow along the banks. A dam of a medium size (about 2 m in height, 20-30 m in length and 4-6 m in width) can support an adult. It is erected in about a week and throughout the entire period is constantly under the vigilant control of rodents.

As proof of this, a vivid example is given - an experiment by the French zoologist Richard. In the French National Park Brusy, he observed the following picture. Richard deliberately punched a hole in the beaver dam and passed a long drainage tube through it. The water immediately began to subside. The beavers immediately began to fuss. An operation to eliminate the leak has begun.

For a start, the animals quickly built up the dam, but it did not help. Then they figured out what was the reason and began to close up the inlet of the tube. Everything is fine, everything is correct, but there was one "surprise" for them - there were also holes on the sides of the tube. They began to repair these holes, too, but to no avail - the water washed away all the "rivets". Then the beavers stopped all attempts for a while and calmed down a bit. But in the end, they coped with this task!

The beavers simply built a new dam that skirted the lower outlet end of the tube. As a result, a small pond was formed between the two dams. All ingenious is simple!

In the ponds where beavers live, there are always a lot of fish, as they often clean the bottom of decaying silt. As a result, the water becomes the most oxygenated. Therefore, it was previously believed that beavers settle where there are a lot of fish, because they feed on it. But this is far from the case.

Beavers are herbivorous animals. They feed on the bark and shoots of trees. Preferred trees of soft species - aspen, poplar, willow, birch, and various herbaceous aquatic plants. They eat about 6 kilograms of wood every day. For the winter, they make blanks stored in water. So that they do not get frozen into the ice, beavers try to place it under the steep overhanging banks.

The offspring are brought once a year. They live in families - 5-8 individuals: male, female and their offspring of the past and current year. They arrange "weddings" in winter, under the ice. In the spring, in April-May, from 1 to 6 cubs appear. The female, although she is a caring mother, keeps her offspring in strictness. Already on day 2-3, she pushes the half-blind cubs into the underwater corridor so that they begin to learn to swim.

The first month they feed on mother's milk, and then slowly begin to switch to plant foods. After 2 years, having reached puberty, the young leave their parents.

The 18th and 19th centuries were a turning point in the population of these animals. They were exterminated for the sake of beautiful fur and beaver jet, which is used in our time in medicine and perfumery. By the beginning of the 20th century, no more than 1,500 individuals remained on the territory of Europe, and about 2,000 in Russia. But thanks to nature conservation measures, the beaver population was restored there and there. By the 1980s, there were about 250 thousand of them, and by 1998 - about 430 thousand individuals. But still, some subspecies of the common beaver are under threat and are included in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and in the Red Book of Russia.

The more you learn about these unusual aquatic rodents and how beavers live, the more you are surprised at their ingenuity, hard work and resourcefulness. Nature has endowed these animals not only with strength and beauty, but also with intelligence.

Appearance

The river beaver is believed to be the largest rodent in Russia and neighboring countries. . Beaver size, or beaver length , is a little more than a meter, the height reaches 40 cm. The weight of the beaver is about 30 kg.

He has beautiful shiny fur, almost waterproof. Above - coarser thick hair, below - a soft thick undercoat. The color of the coat is dark and light chestnut, dark brown or black.

The animal has a squat body, short limbs with five-fingered swimming membranes and strong claws. The tail is shaped like an oar, is up to 30 cm long, covered with horny scales and sparse hairs. The eyes of the rodent are small, the ears are short and wide. This description of the beaver will not allow it to be confused with other aquatic rodents.

Varieties

The family of beavers has only two species: the common beaver, or river, and the canadian beaver. Let's consider the types of beavers in more detail.

River

This is a semi-aquatic animal, the largest rodent inhabiting the Old World, the forest-steppe zone of Russia, Mongolia, China. They settle along the banks of rivers with a slow flow, irrigation canals, lakes and other bodies of water, the banks of which are covered with trees and bushes.

Canadian

In appearance, it differs from the river beaver in a less elongated body, a short head and larger ears. Coloring - blackish or reddish brown. It inhabits almost all of the United States (except for Florida and most of Nevada and California), in Canada, except for the northern regions.

It was brought to the Scandinavian countries, from where it independently entered the Leningrad Region and Karelia.

These two types of beavers have different numbers of chromosomes and do not interbreed.

Habitat

Where beavers live is not very difficult to determine. Noticing fallen trees with a characteristic cone-shaped cut near water bodies, as well as already ready-made dams built by animals, one can conclude that they are somewhere nearby. It will be a great success to stumble upon a beaver's dwelling - this is already an unambiguous marker of the presence of a friendly family. They settle along forest, with a slow current, rivers, streams, reservoirs, lakes.

In the first decade of the last century, beavers in nature could completely disappear in most countries of the world. Russia was no exception. Fortunately, the situation was corrected thanks to the measures taken to protect these animals.

The river beaver now feels free almost throughout the country. The European part of Russia, the Yenisei basin, the southern part of Western Siberia, Kamchatka - these are the places where beavers live.

Lifestyle and habits

A beaver can stay in water without air for about a quarter of an hour. Sensing danger, the animal dives under the water. At the same time, he loudly slaps his tail in the water, which serves as an alarm signal for his fellows.

Reliable protection from enemies (bear, wolf, wolverine) and frost is his carefully fortified hut. Even in severe frosts, it is warm in it, steam flows through the openings of the dwelling in winter - it becomes clear how beavers hibernate.

In the summertime, rodents forage for food, build dams and huts. They work from dusk to dawn. The beaver's powerful sharp teeth gnaw through, for example, an aspen with a diameter of 12 cm in half an hour. Thick trees can be worked over several nights in a row. This beaver sound can be heard from hundreds of meters away.

Nutrition

The main criterion for choosing the place of residence of animals in nature is the sufficient availability of food. The diet of beavers is quite varied.

They eat the bark of trees growing near water bodies, aquatic plants. They love to feast on the bark of aspen, linden, willow. Reeds, sedges, nettles, sorrel and other plants are what beavers eat.

Scientists who have observed their life and what beavers eat in nature have counted up to 300 different plants that serve as food for animals.

Most beavers live in families and touchingly care about the well-being of their “relatives” - they build houses, store food for the winter. They painstakingly fold tree branches to the bottom of the reservoir, which they eat in winter. Such reserves for one family reach ten or more cubic meters.

If, due to the current of the river, it is not possible to lay down their "cellar", beavers in winter go out at night for food on land. They are very risky: beavers, slow on the ground, easily fall into the clutches of four-legged predators, most often wolves.

Dwellings

On high banks with solid ground, beavers dig holes. The entrance to them is located under water. The beaver's burrow is a challenging maze with several ridges, cameras, entrances and exits. The partitions between the "rooms" are tightly packed, and the inside is kept clean. Animals throw the remains of food into the river, and they are carried away by the current.

The name of the beaver's dwelling, which differs from the hole, can be understood by its appearance, which resembles a small house with a sloping roof. The animal first builds one small "room" up to one and a half meters high.

Uses branches of different lengths and thicknesses, clay, grass. He compresses the walls with silt and clay, smoothes them, biting off the sticking out branches. Wood shavings cover the "floor". This is the beaver's hut.

With the increase in the family, his caring head completes and expands his living space. The beaver hut is being replenished with new "rooms", one more floor is being built.

The beaver house can be more than 3 meters high! Painstaking work and engineering ingenuity of the animal amaze the imagination.

Dam construction

What else surprises and delights in the way of life of animals - how beavers build a dam. Place them downstream of their habitat.

Such structures prevent the river from shallowing and facilitate its flooding. And, therefore, they contribute to the resettlement of animals in flooded places, an increase in opportunities for finding food. This is why beavers build dams.

This tactic is also aimed at improving the safety of living. This is another explanation for why beavers are building a dam.

The width and depth of the river, the speed of the current determine what the beaver dam will be like. It must block the river from one bank to the other and be strong enough not to be swept away by the current. Animals choose where there is a place convenient for starting construction - a fallen tree, a narrowing channel.

Hardworking beavers build a dam by sticking knots and stakes into the bottom and filling the gaps between them with cobblestones, silt, and clay. Beaver dams need to be strengthened constantly, month after month, year after year, so that they are not washed out. But this does not stop the beavers! As a result, the dam becomes stronger and stronger, bushes and trees grow on it. You can even cross it from one bank to another.

And this is not the only thing that beavers are useful for. The dams built by them raise the water level, which is beneficial for aquatic insects, and contributes to an increase in the number of fish.

Reproduction

Mating takes place in January-February. And after three months, 3-6 half-blind cubs are born. Newborns weigh only 400-600 g. Weight gain gradually, while the mother feeds them with milk for the whole summer. Inexperienced and weak kids spend the winter with their parents. As a rule, they leave the parental home after 2 years.

It is fairly well known how long beavers live. Under natural conditions - about 15 years.

The only rodent, beavers can walk confidently on two legs. In the front ones, they hold branches, stones, bark of trees. Females carry their young in this way.

Economic value

Beavers have long been hunted for their beautiful, valuable fur. In addition, a beaver jet is used, which is used in medicine and perfumery.

Beaver meat is eaten. Interestingly, the Catholics classified it as a lean food. The scaly tail was misleading, because of which the rodent was considered a fish. A beaver is a danger when eaten due to its natural carrier of salmonellosis.

Video

Watch a fascinating video about the life of beavers.

What are animals like beavers? What are their varieties? What do beavers eat in nature? Where do these animals live? How do beavers take care of their young? All this will be discussed in our publication.

General information

The beaver is the largest rodent in the domestic latitudes. The body length of adults can reach over a meter. At the same time, a beaver is capable of weighing about 30 kilograms.

The animals have a squat body, which is kept on short legs with webbed toes and powerful claws. The head of beavers is massive with a thick neck. The ears are small and short. The wide jaw and a pair of large incisor teeth allow for gnawing the trunks of large trees. Beavers stand out for their large, flat tail, which vaguely resembles a paddle. The surface of the latter contains keratinized scales.

Varieties

The beaver family includes only two species of animals - the European river beaver and the Canadian beaver. Animals of the first category are the largest rodents that live in Europe. They inhabit rivers where the current is not too rapid. Occasionally they can be seen in lakes and irrigation canals, the shores of which are generously overgrown with shrubs and small trees.

As for the Canadian beavers, these animals differ from their European counterparts in a shortened muzzle, a not so elongated body, and also in large ears. They can be found almost throughout North America, in addition to arid regions.

Where do beavers live?

The favorite habitats of the animals are shallow water bodies with a slight current. These animals prefer to settle away from a large civilization. The main condition for them is the availability of access to an abundance of wood, which serves for them not only food, but also material for the construction of dwellings.

It should be noted that at the beginning of the last century, beavers were on the verge of extinction. The reason was the uncontrolled extermination of these large rodents in pursuit of valuable fur. Our country was no exception. Fortunately, in Russia, the problem was quickly dealt with, which was facilitated by the implementation of a policy aimed at protecting these animals. At present, beavers are freely settling in domestic latitudes. The largest populations are observed today in the European part of Russia, in the west of Siberia, in the Yenisei River basin, in Kamchatka.

Lifestyle

Beavers are excellent swimmers. They are able to dive into the depths of reservoirs, holding their breath for a long time. An adult beaver can stay under water for 10-15 minutes. Animals dive not only in search of food, but also at the first danger. Having noticed a predator, beavers perform active slaps in the water with their tail. Loud sounds warn relatives about the approach of a predator.

Beavers are renowned for being skilled builders. Peculiar huts made of branches, snags and tree trunks protect them from such natural enemies as wolves, bears and wolverines. The beaver house serves as an excellent defense against the onset of cold weather. Even in the strongest cold, their huts maintain a comfortable level of heat.

Beavers spend most of their day foraging, building dams and building shelters. The animals prefer to work with the arrival of dusk. The work for them ends as soon as dawn comes.

Caring for offspring

Before describing how beavers take care of their young, I would like to note that the mating season for these animals starts in February. Females carry offspring until early summer. How many cubs does a beaver have? As a rule, 2-4 babies are born. In rare cases, one more calf is born.

From the first days of life, beavers can see and orient themselves perfectly in space, and their body, like that of adults, is covered with a thick fur coat. How do beavers care for their young? Females show a reverent attitude towards offspring, trying to teach useful skills. At first, the beaver has to literally force the babies out of the warm, cozy shelter into the water. However, this attitude only benefits the offspring. After all, beavers simply have to be able to swim and dive well in the first weeks of life.

How do beavers take care of their young? For several months, the females feed the babies with breast milk, carefully comb their fur, do not give offense to their relatives. Beavers are gradually transferring their offspring to plant food. At first, babies are offered all kinds of algae. Then harder food is brought, in particular, young shoots of trees, foliage, water lilies.

Up to the age of one year, the cubs are under the full care of adult relatives and rarely leave the shelter. As they grow older, they begin to rely on the production of food, strengthening of housing. However, since beavers take care of their cubs for the longest period, even after becoming independent babies do not have to worry about the lack of food and their own safety.

Young beavers live in the parental shelter until they reach the age of two. During this time, they manage to significantly increase in size and gain several tens of kilograms of live weight. As soon as young individuals comprehend the secrets of food extraction, protection from enemies, construction of dams, construction of huts and arrangement of storerooms, they are forced to leave their "father's house". They part with their family, leave a considerable distance from the place of birth and occupy new territories, where they build their own huts and find a mate for procreation.

What is the name of a baby beaver?

Babies of such animals are traditionally called beavers. However, among the people they are often called kittens. Why is such a strange definition applied to the young of these animals? Probably, the reason is rather unusual sounds that juveniles make. In the distance, their cries resemble muted meows. In addition, newborn beavers are similar in appearance to kittens.

What do beavers eat in nature?

Beavers are vegetarians. The basis of their diet is the bark of all kinds of trees. Animals especially like birch, willow, aspen. In water bodies, beavers consume a significant amount of coastal vegetation, in particular, they eat cattail, iris, water lilies, and reeds.

Beavers are thrifty animals. They prepare food for future use, storing it in pantries nearby their own dwellings. Here food gradually accumulates until the onset of cold weather. Thus, with the arrival of frost, the beaver's house becomes not only a shelter, but also a kind of dining room.

As a rule, beavers forage in close proximity to their own shelter. However, it often happens that their reserves are washed away and carried away by the course of the river. In such situations, the animals have to go some distance from the shore of the reservoir in order to get enough of the bark of trees. Since on land, beavers are rather slow and clumsy, they often become easy prey for predators.