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HABITS
The European beaver needs both trees
and water, so it is confined to rivers and lakes that are bordered by broad-leaved woods.
The beaver builds a dam across a waterway to
control the water level near its lodge. To build its lodge, the beaver digs a rising
tunnel into the waterside bank and enlarges the top end into a living chamber. The
entrance is underwater, but the chamber is above water level. If the water level rises,
the beaver digs upward. It may then pile twigs and soil on top of the bank to protect
the lodge.
When the water surface freezes, the beaver
makes a hole in the dam to lower the water behind it. This makes an air space under the
ice where the animals can breathe.
Above: The beaver favors softwood
trees like willow and poplar. It can gnaw through a narrow trunk in only a few minutes. It
cuts each felled tree into small pieces that it eats or stores.
EUROPEAN BEAVER & MAN
The European beaver has been widely trapped for its fur and for an
anal secretion called castoreum with which the beaver marks its territory.
This musky-smelling substance was considered valuable because people believed that it
could cure all kinds of ailments.
The beaver also suffered from river management plans that
altered and often destroyed its habitat. Today it is protected in most countries, and
numbers are increasing. It has even been reintroduced in areas such as the Rhone delta in
France. |
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The beaver is Europe's largest
rodent and nature's most remarkable builder. It constructs not only large dams, but also a
secure lodge for its family.
BREEDING
The male and female beaver seem to pair for life. The family unit
often includes kits (offspring) from the previous year. The pair mates in late winter, and
two to four kits are born in late spring. The male and older kits move out of the lodge
during the birth.
The kits are born covered in hair and with their eyes
open. They stay in the living chamber with the mother for about three weeks. She suckles
them but also begins to feed them young leaves after a few days. although adult beavers
are quiet, the kits chatter a lot. The male parent drives males from the lodge when they
are two years old to begin their own families. Females also leave at breeding age.
Above: The beaver is active mainly at
night. in quiet areas it also emerges in the daytime. |
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FOOD & FEEDING
During the summer the European beaver eats the roots, pads, and
shoots of water lilies and other aquatic plants. It also eats the bark, twigs, leaves, and
roots of trees and shrubs. It strips the bark from wood chips that it gnaws from trees
with its razor-sharp incisors.
These teeth keep growing as they wear down. In winter the
beaver may not leave its lodge for weeks, especially if the water surface is frozen.
Since it does not hibernate, it must feed each day.
In fall it collects a supply of branches to be used for food in winter and anchors them
near the entrance to its lodge.
KEY FACTS
Length: Head and body, 2 1/2 -3
ft. Tail, about 1 ft.
Weight: Up to 90 lb.
Sexual maturity: 2 years.
Mating season: February. Gestation:
3-3 1/2 months.
Number of young: Usually 2-4.
Habit: Lives by a wooded river or
lake in a family unit.
Diet: Tree, bark, roots, twigs, leaves, and
aquatic plants.
Lifespan: 10-1 5 years. |
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Did You Know?
The beaver is a skilled swimmer and has scales on its tail, so the
Catholic church once regarded it as a fish. This meant Catholics could eat beaver
meat during Lent.
A beaver slaps the surface of the water loudly with its tail to
warn others of danger.
A beaver dam in Russia was 400 feet long, 3 feet high, and up to 3
feet wide. Dams up to 1,650 feet long have been found in North America.
The little finger of the beaver functions like a human thumb and is
used to grip branches and stones. |
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