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.

Beavers are smart animals, they are called “guardians of the rivers.” They build dams in the water basin and thereby prevent the reservoir from drying out. A beaver dam is an absolutely necessary building. Thanks to it, the water level rises, and the beaver’s life becomes more comfortable.

We hope this report on beavers has helped you. You can leave your report about beavers using the comment form.

The largest rodent of the fauna of the Old World.

Taxonomy

Russian name - common beaver, river beaver
Latin name - Castor fiber
English name - Eurasian beaver, European beaver
Order - Rodents (Rodentia)
Family - Beavers (Castoridae)

The Canadian beaver, a close relative of the river beaver, lives on the North American continent. Now taxonomists distinguish it as a separate species.

Status of the species in nature

Even in early historical times, the beaver inhabited the entire forest-meadow zone of Eurasia, but by the middle of the twentieth century, as a result of predatory hunting, it was almost universally exterminated and was listed in the IUCN Red Book.

Currently, it is still included in the international list of Red Book animals, but already in the status of Least Concern - a species of least concern. There are still few beavers in European countries, but in Russia limited hunting is already open for them.

Species and man

Beavers are animals that have long been known to people. During excavations, next to stone knives and bronze weapons, archaeologists find necklaces with the image of this animal.

Among many peoples of the world, beavers enjoyed well-deserved respect for their amazing abilities and hard work. These animals are heroes of folklore: fairy tales, fables, beliefs, etc. Beavers are firmly established in heraldry: they symbolize labor, the richness of the fauna and subsoil of the region, care and intelligence. This is perhaps the only heraldic animal that is correlated with reasonable labor and engineering activity. In Russia, the beaver takes pride of place on the coat of arms of the cities of Tyumen, Bobrov, etc.

Since ancient times, beaver fur has been valued for its durability and beauty. About a thousand years ago, an organized beaver fishery developed in Eastern Europe - in Rus', Poland and Lithuania. The people involved in this business, beaver hunters, had the exclusive right to beaver ruts (hunting) in the princely lands. They were also engaged in breeding beavers and knew how to select according to color, forming herds of black, brown and red beavers. The secrets of selection were passed down from generation to generation. In fact, beavers were at that time in the position of semi-domestic animals. Poaching was strictly punished.

The “Russian Truth” - the code of laws of pre-Mongol Rus' - says that for the theft of a beaver there is a 12 hryvnia fine. Unlike all other wild animals, beavers were recognized as movable property.

Reasonably organized fishing was undermined during the years of the Tatar-Mongol yoke (13–15 centuries). At that time, all residents of Rus', including one-day-old babies, were subject to taxes, which were paid in furs. A forced increase in hunting for beavers followed, as a result of which their numbers decreased. Beaver pelts became very expensive, and during the time of Ivan the Terrible, it was forbidden for people who belonged to classes lower than the boyars to wear beaver fur. During the entire cold period of the year, the boyars wore beaver coats down to their toes, which could withstand wet snow, biting frost, and snow blizzards. Of course, such fur coats are heavy, but in winter there was no fear of frost in the sleigh.

The beaver is famous not only for its fur. The secretion of its specific glands, the so-called beaver stream, has a strong odor that is used in perfumery. In addition, beaver stream is credited with truly miraculous properties in the treatment of a huge number of diseases.

Beaver meat is quite edible. It is curious that in the Catholic tradition it is considered fasting, since the beaver, according to church canons, was considered a fish due to its scaly tail. The Orthodox clergy categorically prohibits its consumption as food.

In our country, as a result of uncontrolled harvesting, by the beginning of the 20th century, almost all beavers were exterminated. Only a few hundred animals have survived in four small areas: in the Dnieper basin - on the banks of the Berezina, Sozh, Pripyat and Teterev rivers, in the Don basin - along the Voronezh and Usman rivers, in the Trans-Urals, on the Konda and Sosva rivers. And the last place where natural populations of these animals have survived is on the Azas River in the upper reaches of the Yenisei. The only thing that saved beavers from complete destruction was that since 1922, hunting them was banned everywhere, and several reserves were created. Thus, in 1923, a reserve was organized along the Usman River in the Voronezh region; in 1927 the Voronezh, Berezinsky and Kondo-Sosvensky nature reserves were opened. At the same time, a program for the re-acclimatization of beavers in the country began to work. Before the Second World War, it was possible to resettle only 316 animals, but since 1946 the work was continued, and by the 70s, in the territory of 52 regions of Russia, more than 12,000 beavers had found their previously lost homeland.

Fortunately, these wonderful animals are not currently in danger of extinction. Beavers can now be found even in the vicinity of large cities. Traces of gnawing by hardworking animals are found in the immediate Moscow region and even on the outskirts of Moscow.

Where beavers settle, the area flooded with water increases. Water attracts ducks, they bring eggs on their legs, and fish appear in the pond. However, if there are too many beavers, their activity leads to swamping of the area, and subsequently to the loss of many types of trees.

Distribution area and habitats

Currently, the beaver's range is quite extensive, this is the result of the efforts of zoologists to acclimatize and reintroduce this animal. It is found throughout most of northern Europe, in the lower reaches of the river. Rhone, river basin Elbe, Vistula, in the forest and partly in the forest-steppe zone of the European part of Russia. There are scattered habitats of the river beaver in the upper reaches of the Yenisei, in Kuzbass, the Baikal region, in the Amur basin, and in Kamchatka.

The beaver is a typical semi-aquatic animal, whose life is closely connected with small bodies of water: slowly flowing forest rivers, streams, oxbow lakes, and lakes. Beavers avoid wide and fast-flowing rivers. For these animals, the presence of deciduous trees and herbaceous vegetation, which form the basis of their diet, is important.

Appearance and morphology

The beaver is the largest rodent in the northern hemisphere. It has a short massive body up to 70–80 cm long, and sometimes up to 1 m. The weight of old large males can reach 30 kg, females are even slightly larger. The legs are short and thick, the hind legs are longer and stronger than the front ones. Each has 5 toes; on the front paws, the first toe is opposed to the others, thanks to which the beaver can very dexterously manipulate objects. The hind ones have well-developed swimming membranes, and the animal can reach speeds of up to 7 km/h in the water. The claws are powerful, strong, the claw on the 2nd toe of the hind limb is forked in the form of a small fork. With its help, the beaver combs its fur and treats the hair with a special mixture of paired anal glands and secretions of the so-called “beaver stream”.

Beaver stream, which emits a strong musky odor, has long been of great interest, since people attributed to it truly miraculous properties. Histological studies have shown that the beaver stream does not have a glandular structure; these are the so-called preputial organs, which are skin sacs, and their contents are formed as a result of the interaction of the keratinizing epithelium and salts brought in by the urine. There were no differences in the structure and formation of the contents of these organs between males and females.

Next to the beaver stream are the anal glands, which secrete an oily secretion that differs in males and females in color, smell, and consistency. Males have a yellow secretion, and females have a gray secretion. The combination of secretions from the anal glands and the beaver stream carries odor information about the sex, age, physiological state of the animal and its individuality. Beavers use them to mark their territory, and the secretion of the wen, used in conjunction with the stream, allows the beaver mark to be kept in a “working” state longer due to its oily structure, which evaporates much more slowly than the secretion of the beaver stream.

The beaver has a special tail - no one else has it! In shape it resembles an oar, flattened in a horizontal plane. The length of the tail is only twice its width. In the upper part there is a small horny outgrowth - the keel, most of which is covered with hexagonal horny plates. There is still hair at the base of the tail, then individual short and stiff hairs grow between the plates. When swimming, the beaver uses its tail as a rudder. A beaver can stay under water for up to 5 minutes.

When diving, the small eyes of this animal are closed by a nictitating membrane (third eyelid), which simultaneously provides eye protection and clear vision under water. Beavers have excellent hearing, although their ears are also small, wide and short, barely noticeable above the fur. Both the ears and nostrils close under water, so that water does not enter there. The beaver's large, reddish-brown incisors are separated from the oral cavity by special outgrowths of the upper lips, thanks to which the animal can chew underwater without the risk of swallowing it. These teeth in beavers, like all rodents, grow throughout their lives. The front surface of the incisors is covered with enamel, and the back is made of softer dentin, so the more the beaver gnaws, the sharper the teeth.

The beaver has beautiful fur, the color of which varies among different animals from light brown to almost black. The hair coat consists of a long, coarse guard up to 5 cm long (on the back) and a soft, very dense undercoat about 2 cm long. There are on average about 32 thousand hairs per 1 cm², and there are 230–300 downy hairs per guard hair. In general, beaver fur is very durable and moisture-resistant, because it must warm the animal when it comes out of the water in the frosty winter.

Lifestyle, social behavior and habitat arrangement

Beavers are active at night and at dusk. In summer, they leave their homes at sunset and work until 4–6 am. In the fall, when the preparation of feed for the winter begins, the working day lengthens to 10–12 hours. In winter, activity decreases and shifts to daylight hours; At this time of year, beavers almost never appear on the surface. At temperatures below −20°C, animals remain in their homes.

Special mention needs to be made of beaver dwellings and their landscaping of their territory. Beavers are not only amazing builders, but also “engineers”! Animals that have formed a pair usually dig a hole in the high bank of the river. The entrance to the burrow is always located under water, and the floor of the burrow is at least 20 cm above the water. From an underground burrow, animals break through a vertical corridor to the surface of the earth. Above it, beavers build a roof from the trunks of small trees, branches, and earth, compacting the building material with their palms and heads. However, in the middle there is always an area with loosely laid branches - a “window” for ventilation. If the water level in the river rises, the animals scrape the earth from the ceiling and raise the floor. It happens that the earthen ceiling collapses, then the hole turns into a semi-hut: the lower part of the dwelling is earthen, and on top there is a reliable high roof. In places where the banks are low and digging holes is impossible, beavers make ground huts from branches held together with clay and silt. The beavers bite off the branches sticking out into the room, caulk the cracks with moss and cover them with silt. The result is smooth walls and ceiling. The height of the hut on the outside can be up to 3 meters, and the diameter at the base can reach 12 m.

The hut is inhabited by one family of beavers, usually consisting of 5–8 animals (a couple of adult animals, their children from last year and/or the year before, and babies). Beavers are very clean - there is never any garbage or excrement inside the home. The entrance to the beaver “house” is always under water; if a large predator tries to destroy the ceiling, the animals still won’t be able to reach them - they will dive into the water and hide in another place. In the hut, even in severe frost, the temperature is always positive; in cold weather, a park is visible above the beavers’ habitation. It happens that in the spring, during a flood, water still floods the home, then the beavers build hammocks made of branches and twigs with a bedding of dry grass on the tops of the bushes.

The beaver family occupies a section of the river ranging from 0.3 to 1.5 km or more, depending on the abundance of food. In reservoirs with frequently changing water levels, on small rivers and forest streams, beavers build dams. This allows the animals to raise or lower the water level in the reservoir so that the entrances to the huts remain under water and are not accessible to predators.

Dams are built downstream from beaver settlements from tree trunks, branches, stones, clay - whatever is at hand. Beavers float the building material on water and carry it in their mouths and paws. The whole family works, or even several families living nearby. The result is such a strong structure that a person can freely walk on it, or even a rider can ride on it. Water drains are installed in one or more places to prevent floods from damaging the entire dam. The usual length of a beaver dam is 20–30 meters, width at the base is 4–6 m, at the crest - 1 m, height - about 2 m. However, by skillfully using the bank ledges, beavers can build dams several hundred meters long. The record for the construction of such a structure belongs, however, not to river beavers, but to Canadian beavers. In the US state of New Hampshire there is a dam 1.2 km long.

But building a dam is still half the battle. You need to keep it in working condition, you need to regulate the water level. How do these amazing rodents coordinate their activities, how do they understand which place needs repair? The greatest contribution to the study of beaver behavior during dam construction was made by the Swedish zoologist Wilson and the French zoologist Richard. They found that the main stimulus for construction activity is the sound of water. Possessing excellent hearing, beavers accurately determined where the sound had changed, which meant changes had occurred in the structure of the dam. But the sound of water is not the only stimulus. When a pipe was laid under the dam, which was “inaudible,” the animals quickly discovered the leak and clogged the pipe with branches and mud. How animals “agree” and coordinate their work is still unclear.
The construction of dams leads to flooding of forest areas, to the formation of canals into which paths turn, and the entire area acquires a specific “beaver landscape.” It is necessary to make a reservation that the construction of multi-meter dams is carried out by the Canadian beaver; this is not typical for river beavers.

Vocalization

The most famous sound that beavers make is a loud slap of their tail on the water, notifying their relatives of danger. As for vocal signals, for a long time adult beavers were generally considered voiceless animals. However, thanks to numerous observations of animal behavior both in nature and in captivity, it has now been established that beavers produce various low-frequency sounds.

Thus, the loud trumpet sounds of these animals can be heard during meetings of warring individuals. As a rule, the attacking animal screams, and this scream is accompanied by grumbling and hissing. Hissing, like “fzssh,” is generally used among beavers to express displeasure or unfriendliness.

When courting, beavers produce moans that resemble “yyy” or “oooh” pronounced through the nose; these sounds usually accompany mutual caresses, and also serve as a call or request.
Canadian researcher V. Bailey observed how a female beaver called her babies with such a moan. With the same sound, beavers express a feeling of fear or confusion, for example, in an unfamiliar place, when they cannot find the way to the house.

Cubs are characterized by higher-frequency crying and plaintive sounds than adult beavers. Chilled beaver cubs use them to call their mother: they also make plaintive sounds when meeting other beavers.

Nutrition and feeding behavior

Beavers are herbivorous animals. In summer, their diet includes a lot of herbaceous aquatic and semi-aquatic plants (water lily, white lily, iris, reed, etc.), but the main source of food for these animals is trees. They eat bark and young twigs, primarily of willow, aspen, poplar and birch. Alder and oak are practically not eaten, but are used in the construction of dams. They eat acorns with pleasure.

Beavers gnaw trees, rising on their hind legs and leaning on their tail. In this case, the beaver presses its upper incisors against the tree, and quickly moves its lower jaw from side to side at a speed of 5–6 movements per second. Sawdust flies in all directions, and an aspen tree with a diameter of 5–7 cm falls after 5 minutes of work by the beaver. A beaver fells a tree with a diameter of 40 cm overnight. The trunk of a gnawed tree looks very characteristic - it has the appearance of an hourglass. After the tree falls, the beaver chews off the branches. Some of the branches along with the foliage are eaten right there, while some are dragged by the animal to the pond. If there is a need for building materials, the wood is sawn into logs and used for construction.

As autumn approaches, beavers begin to prepare food for the winter. To do this, they drag the chewed off branches into the pond. Animals constantly walk in the same places, as a result of which beaver paths are formed, which, when flooded, turn into canals. Floating branches on water is easier than dragging them on land, and beavers always keep the canals clean. In a reservoir, at a shallow depth (but where the water does not freeze to the bottom), thrifty workers bury branches in the silt, press them down with stones, or place them under an overhanging bank. In this form, the food retains all its beneficial properties until February. Beavers store a huge amount of food - up to 60–70 cubic meters per family.

In winter, when it’s cold, beavers do not come to the surface and eat food prepared in the fall in their home, where there is a special “dining room” located closer to the entrance than the “bedroom”.

Reproduction and raising of offspring

Beavers are monogamous, the main one in the pair is the female. The mating season lasts from mid-January to the end of February. Beavers mate underwater and, after just over 3 months, beavers are born. A small litter (1 - 6 cubs) is the only one of the year. Beaver cubs are born semi-sighted, covered in fur, weigh on average 0.45 kg and after a couple of days they can already swim. The mother actively encourages them to go into the water, literally pushing them into the underwater corridor.

At the age of 3–4 weeks, beavers begin to eat plant foods, mainly soft stems of grass, but feeding with milk continues up to 3 months. Growing up beavers live the working life of the family: together with adults, they participate in repairing the hut, dam and preparing food for the winter. They usually stay with their parents for two years. Having reached sexual maturity, young beavers leave their parental home.

Lifespan

If everything goes well, the beaver lives 15–20 years, although an animal is known that has reached the venerable age of 24 years.

Keeping animals at the Moscow Zoo

Beavers have lived in the zoo for centuries. Unfortunately, these are nocturnal animals and are difficult to see during the day. The hole in which the animals sleep is located on the Old Territory in the Night World pavilion, and the street walking area is adjacent to the enclosure with wolves. There is a pond, an artificial dam and a beaver lodge (though it was not made by beavers). Beavers swim and dive with pleasure, eat food on the shore and carry branches in their teeth into the hole. The best time to watch beavers in the enclosure is in the summer, in the evening, before the zoo closes.

Currently, zoo staff give food to the beavers during the day, the animals come out to people, communicate with pleasure, eat, but are not active for long, and again go into the hole to watch their “beaver dreams.” These rodents are fed with branches and various vegetables.

One of the beavers that can be seen at the exhibition came to us as a very small child. He was found in the near Moscow region by traffic police officers. They were inspecting the road and saw a cardboard box on the side of the road. We stopped the car, approached the box and heard strange sounds. They probably opened it with all the precautions! Imagine their surprise when they found a tiny beaver and a bottle of milk in the box. Who put the beaver in a box and left it on the side of the road remains a mystery. The animal in the same box was taken to the zoo in a car with a flashing light, safely fed, now lives in a comfortable hole and even has a girlfriend.

What are animals like beavers? What types of them exist? What do beavers eat in the wild? Where do these animals live? How do beavers care for their young? All this will be discussed in our publication.

General information

The beaver is the largest rodent in domestic latitudes. The body length of adult individuals can reach more than a meter. At the same time, a beaver can weigh about 30 kilograms.

The animals have a squat body, which is supported on short legs with webbed toes and powerful claws. Beavers have a massive head with a thick neck. The ears are small and short. A wide jaw and a pair of large incisor teeth allow it to gnaw through the trunks of large trees. Beavers are distinguished by their large, flat tail, which vaguely resembles an oar. 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 fast. Occasionally they can be seen in lakes and irrigation canals, the banks of which are generously overgrown with bushes and small trees.

As for Canadian beavers, these animals differ from their European counterparts in having a shortened muzzle, a not so elongated body, and 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 reservoirs with little current. These animals prefer to settle away from large civilization. The main condition for them is access to an abundance of wood, which serves them not only as food, but also as material for building homes.

It is worth noting 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 resolved, which was facilitated by a policy aimed at protecting these animals. Currently, beavers spread freely in Russian latitudes. The largest populations are observed today in the European part of Russia, in western Siberia, in the Yenisei River basin, and in Kamchatka.

Lifestyle

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

Beavers are known as skilled builders. Unique huts made of branches, snags and tree trunks protect them from natural enemies such as wolves, bears and wolverines. The beaver's house serves as excellent protection during the onset of cold weather. Even in extreme cold, their huts maintain a comfortable level of warmth.

Beavers spend the bulk of their day foraging for food, building dams, and constructing shelters. The animals prefer to work at dusk. Their work ends as soon as dawn comes.

Caring for offspring

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

From the first days of life, beavers have excellent vision and orientation 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 their offspring, trying to teach them useful skills. At first, the beaver has to literally force the babies out of the warm, cozy shelter into the water. However, such an attitude only brings benefits to the offspring. After all, beavers simply must be able to swim and dive well in the first weeks of life.

How else do beavers care for their young? For several months, females feed their babies with breast milk, carefully comb their fur, and do not give offense to their relatives. Beavers gradually switch their offspring to plant foods. At first, kids are offered all kinds of seaweed. Then they bring more solid food, in particular, young shoots of trees, foliage, and water lilies.

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

Young beavers live in their parents' shelter until they reach two years of age. 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 obtaining food, protecting themselves from enemies, building dams, constructing huts and arranging storerooms, they are forced to leave their “father’s house”. They part with their family, move a considerable distance from their place of birth and occupy new territories, where they build their own huts and find a couple to continue the family line.

What is a baby beaver called?

The babies of such animals are traditionally called beavers. However, people often call them kittens. Why is such a strange definition applied to the cubs of these animals? Probably the reason is the rather unusual sounds that young individuals make. Distantly, their screams resemble muffled meows. In addition, newborn beavers are similar in appearance to kittens.

What do beavers eat in the wild?

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

Beavers are thrifty animals. They prepare food for future use, storing it in storerooms near their own homes. Here food gradually accumulates until the cold weather sets in. 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 obtain food in close proximity to their own shelter. However, it often happens that their reserves are washed away and carried away by the river current. In such situations, the animals have to go some distance from the shore of the reservoir in order to get enough of the tree bark. Since beavers are quite slow and clumsy on land, they often become easy prey for predators.

The common beaver is a semi-aquatic animal that belongs to the order of rodents. Otherwise, this representative of the family is called river due to the fact that the rodent prefers to live in appropriate water sources. The animal is able to amaze even the most experienced person who deals with such animals. He builds a home well, takes care of his offspring and gets food. In terms of its overall dimensions, this rodent is the second largest. In today's material we will look at everything connected with it.

Description

1. The capybara is considered the largest animal among rodents, the beaver takes second place with honor. The mammal is famous for its dimensional features, which gives it a terrifying appearance. Such animals prefer to lead a semi-aquatic lifestyle.
2. If we consider their dimensions, then adult animals can grow up to 1.3 m in body size. You must agree, this is impressive. At the same time, the shoulders grow up to 35 cm, and body weight fluctuates in the range of 30 kg. Differences in gender between these individuals are poorly expressed. We can only say that the females are slightly larger than the males.
3. The body format is squat, the limbs are short, with five fingers. The hind limbs are considered the most developed; the emphasis is placed on them. Due to the fact that animals prefer to live mostly in water, their spaces between their fingers are equipped with membranes. The claws are strong and strong, causing lacerations during collisions.
4. The tail is given special attention. It has no fur. The format of the tail looks like an oval, elongated and very flat. It grows up to 30 cm in length and about 13 cm in width. Some individuals may have hairs in the main part. The tail itself seems to be covered with keratinized scale particles. Between them there is a very short and hard pile. The upper part is characterized by the presence of a keel.
5. Despite the fact that these individuals are classified as large, their eyes are small. The ears are also not famous for their majesty; they are hidden under the fur and practically do not stand out against the background of the head. When an animal descends into a body of water, its nostrils close, as do the openings in its ears. Membranes called nictitating membranes descend over the eyes.
6. The molar dentition is characterized by a rootless type. However, a separate root system may be present in adult individuals due to age characteristics. The incisors are located at the back of the mouth. They are growths that are isolated from the mouth. It is this trait that allows animals to gnaw whatever they want in the aquatic environment.
7. Animal fur is pigmented in black, dark brown, brownish, and chestnut shades. It is famous for having a dense cushion with an oily impregnation. The guard hair itself is hard and elongated. The paws are painted black, as is the tail, although the latter may also have a dark gray pigment. Shedding occurs once a year. It begins at the end of spring and ends with the beginning of winter or the end of autumn.
8. The anal zone is equipped with paired glands, as well as a beaver stream, the main purpose of which is to send a signal about the gender and other characteristics of a particular individual. Their streams release a secretion with an enhanced odor. This aroma allows other individuals to navigate among the entire beaver settlement and identify a specific member of the pack.

Lifestyle

1. The representatives of the family under discussion prefer to live near slowly flowing water sources, be they rivers or storage facilities. They also enjoy completely standing sources, such as ponds or lakes. Beavers occupy the shoreline and spread out in this area. They do not mind settling in quarries or oxbow lakes. They completely avoid water sources with fast flows, as well as those places that freeze almost to the bottom in winter.
2. These individuals require vegetation growing in the coastal area. They prefer shrubs and wood, and love larches. I also like herbs, which form the basis of the diet.
3. The animals are both excellent divers and swimmers. Their lungs are huge, as is their liver. All this allows you to gain enough air to swim the required distance and stay in the water for up to 15 minutes. When a mammal gets ashore, it feels unsafe and looks clumsy.
4. When danger is brewing, the rodents begin to slap their spade-like tails across the water surface with all their might, then just as quickly disappear into the aquatic environment. They thus give an alarm to all other family members so that they can escape in a timely manner.
5. Accommodation is carried out individually or in small groups. A family can consist of 7 individuals, which are represented by a couple and their offspring. If a family occupies a certain territory, then it is registered with it for several more years or even more.
6. If the body of water is relatively small, it can be occupied by a bachelor or a small family. But larger areas are allocated to groups. Beavers try not to move further than 150 m from bodies of water, because this increases the risk to life.
7. These individuals walk around their possessions, after which they mark the boundaries with a secret that encourages them not to leave their homes. As for the period of activity, these mammals prefer to stay awake at dusk or at night.
8. With the onset of the autumn or spring season, adult members of the family leave their homes in the evening, after which they work throughout the night. When cold or frost sets in, these individuals very rarely come to the surface.

Lifespan

1. Considering their lifespan in the natural environment, we can say that in such conditions they reach up to 15 years. If you keep mammals in captivity, they will live for about 20-25 years. Life is shortened due to the presence of enemies in nature and some diseases characteristic of these rodents.
2. Even if we take into account that animals are famous for their excellent immune systems, they can still get sick. Among the most common ailments are infections, including tularemia. Because of it, animals simply die.
3. The population is also affected by special weather conditions, including winter floods. For example, they can take the lives of more than half of the beaver population. And spring floods lead to the death of young animals, which are not adapted to such situations.

Population

1. The individuals under discussion, classified as the common or Eurasian segment, have long inhabited the countries of Europe and Asia, respectively. But at some point, beavers began to be mercilessly hunted, which led to a significant reduction in the population. Today the population is very small, it is practically on the verge of extinction.
2. At the beginning of the 19th century, in almost all territories of the above countries, these rodents did not remain at all. In the 20th century, the population numbered about 1,300 individuals. They created groups that monitored the population and punished violators. Therefore, the number of beavers has increased in Europe; in Asia it is still recovering, but slowly.

Meaning

1. The presented mammals began to be hunted due to the fact that their fur is very valuable. Rodents were also caught using beaver streams, which are often used in the production of perfumes, pharmacology, and medicine.
2. The meat of this animal is considered a delicacy. Catholics even equate it with Lenten varieties. However, today it is known that beaver can carry salmonellosis, partly because of this, its meat is no longer consumed in such quantities.

Characteristics

1. It is worth noting that the presented individuals live in burrows. Such dwellings are sometimes called huts. An interesting fact remains that the entrance to their house is always located under water. Most often, rodents begin to dig a hole on a steep, steep bank. Such a dwelling is presented in the form of a complex labyrinth.
2. In addition, the house has several entrances. Beavers take a responsible approach to construction. They try to compact the shelf part and walls tightly. In addition, mammals most often build a hut in places where, as it may seem, there are no conditions for such actions.
3. Burrows are often found in swampy, low and flat banks. He is on the shallows. Individuals begin construction as soon as summer comes to an end. The finished dwelling is a cone-shaped hole. At the same time, the height in diameter is truly amazing; it can reach up to 10 m.
4. Animals try to carefully decorate the walls with clay and silt. Thanks to this feature, this fortress is practically impregnable to predators and other pests. Such beavers are clean animals. They will never litter their home with excrement or pieces of food.
5. Beavers begin to build the famous platinums if a family of beavers lives on a body of water where the water level often changes. Trees that have fallen into the water often act as a powerful frame foundation. As a result, beavers try to line the trunk with all available materials.
6. The finished platinum can be up to 30 m long. At the same time, the base reaches up to 6 m and the height up to 5 m. It is worth noting an interesting fact that in Montana, on the Jefferson River, beavers built a dam of incredible size. Its length reached as much as 0.7 km! Animals begin to cut down trees to prepare food and for construction needs.
7. Beavers gnaw tall trees at the very base. After this, the animal can gnaw off the branches. If the tree is large, then the rodent divides the trunk into several parts. Aspen with a diameter of up to 10 cm can be felled by a beaver in just a few minutes. If the tree has a diameter of up to half a meter, the animal will knock it down in less than a night.
8. During this, beavers lean on their tail and stand on their hind legs. At the same time, their teeth begin to work like a saw. During this procedure, beavers' fangs are sharpened themselves. They consist of very strong and hard dentin. Small branches that have been knocked down are eaten by the animals themselves.
9. The rest of the building materials are sent by water towards the construction of a dam or housing. During the construction process, beavers trample paths that are soon filled with water. They are most often called “beaver canals.” They are used to transport tree feed. After a long period of work, the area takes on an unusual appearance. In the process, it is called a “beaver landscape.”

Diet

1. The individuals in question belong to the category of animals that strictly feed on products of exclusively plant origin. These semi-aquatic mammals prefer only plant shoots and tree bark.
2. Animals often like to feast on willow, aspen, poplar or birch. Beavers are very fond of herbaceous plants. Among these, the most popular are iris, egg capsule, young reed, water lily and cattail.
3. Beavers begin to actively live in areas where there is a large amount of softwood. In addition, the daily diet of these mammals often includes hazel, elm, linden and bird cherry. Oak and alder are not on the beaver menu. This material is used exclusively for construction purposes and for furnishing your own home.
4. What remains interesting is that beavers really love acorns. Moreover, every day in their diet such a product makes up about 20% of the total mass of the animal itself. River beavers cope excellently with any solid food of plant origin without any problems. This is achieved thanks to a powerful bite and large teeth.
5. It is worth noting that beavers almost always consume only a few tree species for food. If they switch to a new type of food, they will need a long adaptation. The microflora in the intestines must completely adapt to the new type of menu. As soon as the warm period begins, the beavers' diet begins to include a large amount of grassy food.
6. With the onset of autumn, beavers begin to prepare food for the winter. It is interesting that animals put wood food in the water. Thanks to this, the product fully retains its taste and nutritional qualities until the onset of February. On average, the food supply per family is up to 70 cubic meters.

Reproduction

1. As for sexual maturity, individuals reach it only at the 3rd year of life. Animals most often remain in rut from the end of February to the end of March. At this time, beavers begin to crawl out of their winter shelters and wander through the snow. They also often swim in thawed ice holes. They actively mark their territory with beaver streams.
2. Among other things, not only males do this, but also females who have reached sexual maturity. Interestingly, the mating process occurs exclusively in water. After a little more than 3 months, up to 5 cubs are born. The number of young animals will directly depend on the age of the female. Old beavers produce more beavers than young ones.
3. As soon as the young are born, in the first days they feed exclusively on mother's milk. When babies are more than 3 weeks old, plant foods begin to be present in their diet. The mother stops feeding the beavers milk when they are about 2 months old.
4. In addition, it is at this time that the young animals begin to actively develop their incisors. Therefore, the beavers follow their parents to gnaw on something. They become completely independent by the age of 2 years. At this age they are already starting to build their own home.

In today's material we will look at the second largest mammal, classified as a rodent. Due to their overall size, beavers can grow to more than 1 m; they are excellent builders and parents. Due to fishing and constant hunting, the population has decreased significantly, but this century they are fighting to restore it.

Video: common beaver (Castor fiber)

When it comes to talking about beavers, a river miracle with huge, yellow, sharp teeth that can chew through anything immediately appears before your eyes. These animals are indeed very toothy, but in nature they bring great benefits precisely thanks to their tireless jaws. Everyone knows that the beaver is a born builder. He is an example of perseverance and hard work. It was from these workers that people learned experience that was useful in the construction of dams. Sometimes there is something to learn from our smaller brothers. How does a beaver live, what does it eat, and how does it build its unique structures? You will learn about all this by reading the article.

The largest rodent

Nowadays, there are two species in nature and the European one. The differences between them are small, except that the European one is slightly smaller than the Canadian one. A long time ago, about 5 million years ago, beavers could measure their strength even with the owner of the forest himself - the bear. The huge ancestors of today's rodents have gone extinct, and today's dam builders are much smaller in size than their great-grandfathers.

An adult male beaver weighs approximately 20-25 kg, some bogatyrs reach a weight of 45 kg, and their length reaches 1.2 meters. The delightful tail occupies 15-20 cm, its width is almost equal to its length. This tail also plays an important role as a keel - with its help, the furry swimmer regulates the depth of immersion in the water. The beaver's completely transparent eyelids allow it to see everything underwater and navigate perfectly there.

There is something else interesting in the appearance of rodents: the claw on the thumb is split into two halves - this is a gift from nature so that the animals have the opportunity to comb their fur. Continuing the conversation about limbs, I would like to note that they help beavers swim well. The hind legs are webbed, the same kind of membranes that ducks have. Thanks to them, swimmers can reach speeds of up to 10 km/h. The front paws are relatively small, without membranes, and equipped with impressive, powerful claws that can easily dig the ground. The front paws also act as hands - animals use them to carry clay and branches.

Beautiful thick fur and a thick layer of fat under the skin protect beavers from the cold. The animals carefully look after their fur coat, combing it with a natural comb. Thanks to the oily liquid secreted by special glands, this wonderful fur does not get wet.

Animals' teeth grow throughout their lives, and if they are not regularly ground down on wood, they will reach unprecedented sizes.

The life of beavers in nature is full of dangers. Its duration is on average 13-15 years. In captivity they live 2-3 times longer.

All those animals that neighbor beavers entrust them with the mission of preserving and, if necessary, saving water and adjacent forest lands. It turns out that with their work, furry builders care not only about their well-being - the peace of their neighbors also depends on them.

The sound of flowing water awakens the beavers' passion for construction, and they begin to act. They can build for days - day and night; it is impossible to find more hardworking workers. Beavers begin to develop new aquatic territory according to a plan developed over the years:

1. A dam is being built that will turn the stream into a cozy and quiet pond.
2. A system of canals is created to expand the domain.
3. A huge storeroom is being built.
4. A huge, multi-room house more than 1 meter high is being built. The walls of the house are built half a meter thick.

After just one week, the house is ready, the entrances are under water to protect the home from enemies. When a beaver works at a “sawmill”, harvesting wood, he is at risk. A tree can fall and crush a beaver, so only one goes for building materials, and at the same time for food, the rest of the family members are busy with other household chores. Good for these lumberjacks! After all, what does a beaver eat? Yes, with what they build their dams from. It is important to obtain building material, but food supplies for a family of rodents also need to be very large.

Faithful spouses and caring parents

Loyalty and devotion reign in the family of furry rodents. They do everything together throughout their lives, wisely distributing work among all family members. Young people can live with their parents for up to two years, after which the children must go to build their own home, trying to find a mate during their wanderings.

A mother beaver gives birth to a litter of 3 to 4 cubs weighing 0.5 kg each. Babies are born complete copies of their parents, only small. They are already wearing coats with big teeth and adorable tails. After two weeks, future lumberjacks are already gnawing on solid food. What the older beaver eats, the younger one also eats. One can only envy the family idyll in water houses!

The main menu of these hard-working rodents is herbaceous plants. What a beaver eats is often shown in cartoons. In most cases, we see on screens how these animals eat fish. This is not true - aquatic animals do not eat such food. They spend a lot of energy felling trees; they need to be replenished somehow in order to withstand such a load. And it’s definitely not fish that helps them with this!

What do beavers eat in the wild, and what are their favorite dishes? It is clearer than clear that this is a tree. Favorite delicacies are twigs of alder, aspen, and willow. A beaver eats up to 1 kg of wood per day. Bark, the woody pulp under the bark, is the best food for critters. They chew small twigs whole, like candy.

Such hard foods are difficult to chew and even more difficult to digest. The beaver's food system is quite ready for this work.

In winter time

How do water workers behave in the cold season, because water bodies freeze and everything around is covered in snow? It’s hard for them, but if you prepare well for the winter, then the frosts won’t be scary. The beaver sleeps most of the time in winter. But in order to sleep peacefully and on a full stomach, one family needs to prepare more than a ton of branches for the winter.

It is very cozy in a beaver hut, insulated for the winter. It’s only when the food runs out that the head of the family has to go fishing.

The body of beavers is adapted for swimming, and not for plowing snow, so they have a very difficult time in the cold and in snowdrifts. Therefore, they are making every effort to ensure that the reserves last until the weather warms up.

Curious facts

The life of beavers is very interesting; there are many interesting things in their way of life:

1. Furry swimmers cover a distance of 700 meters underwater in 10-15 minutes.
2. In just one night, a beaver can fell and clear a tree with a diameter of 30-40 cm.
3. Territory of 3 square meters. km can be inhabited by just one family of beavers.
4. The largest beaver dam built is 700 m long, which is a world record. Although in the state of New Hampshire there is a larger dam - 1.2 km.
5. In the city of Bobruisk there are two monuments to beavers, which is not surprising if you pay attention to the name of the city.