Beavers are very interesting animals with an extremely beautiful “fur coat”. Because of their amazing skins, they were on the verge of extinction in the recent past. The reason for this is people who in large quantities exterminated beavers using their skins to sew fur coats and hats.
It is difficult to find more hardworking animals, they cannot live without work, these are born builders who use their strong teeth as tools. More beavers are exemplary spouses and parents. Matriarchy reigns in the family, in pair with the female and the male they are very kind to each other and raise offspring together. If you are interested in learning how beavers take care of their cubs, read this article.
Beaver Description
In ancient times, the ancestors of beavers were huge, their current descendants are not so large, but they can not be called small rodents. An adult beaver reaches a length of 1.3-1.4 m with a weight of 25-30 kg. Females are large. The female mother leads the whole family, it is she who organizes the construction work and controls the filling of storerooms with supplies for the winter.
The limbs of the beaver are short, they clumsily move on land, but in the water they have no equal in swimming and diving. The face is stupid, the ears are small. The fur consists of two layers: the outer red-brown hair and a thick undercoat of gray color. Such a "fur coat" is able to protect the beast from the cold and does not freeze in ice water.
A beaver uses a black bare tail instead of an oar when maneuvering underwater. It is horizontally flat and covered with scales. The pride of these animals is their teeth. They are unusually strong and continue to grow throughout life. If these hardworking rodents did not grind them daily on wood, it is impossible to imagine how long their teeth would grow.
Further we will consider how these amazing animals live in the natural environment and how beavers take care of their cubs.
Wildlife Lifestyle
The usual habitat of beavers is freshwater bodies of water that are surrounded by forests. At the same time, the reservoir should be deep, if it is a river, not a lake, then the flow in it should be very slow. In many cases, these water workers build dams and thus create the necessary conditions for themselves. They work mainly at night, during the day they prefer to sit out in their underwater dwellings.
Beavers are convinced vegetarians, their menu consists only of woody and plant foods. In the summer, they eat leaves, buds, shoots and, of course, branches. They stock up wood for the winter, the older couple makes the whole family work so that in the winter there is enough food for both adults and the younger generation. Since beavers take care of their cubs, they need to work a lot. Young people cannot take care of themselves on their own until they live with their parents and learn how to survive with them.
How beavers take care of their cubs: from birth to 2 months
The mating season for beavers falls in the winter, when they have little work, and they spend most of the time in their houses. Fertilization takes place in January - February. The female carries the babies for approximately 100 days. At one time, from 1 to 6 beavers are born.
Kids can see very well, their weight is about 0.5 kilograms. A furry coat is present in them from birth. After two to three days, the beavers are already able to swim. To the question of how beavers take care of their cubs, you can definitely answer - excellent! Beaver mother is very kind to babies, but she does not forget to teach their lives with all severity. In order to accustom them to water, the first time she had to force the pushing beavers into the underwater corridor by force. But this is only for their benefit, caring female will never cause harm to her offspring.
Up to two months, the beaver, you can say, does not leave the little toothbrushes, feeds them with milk, cleans their "fur coat". After the babies turn one and a half months old, they are gradually weaned and accustomed to ordinary food. First, they are given soft leaves and water lilies, in addition, they are also fed mother's milk. All the family members take care of the cubs, protect and ensure that they do not get into trouble.
How animals take care of cubs (beavers): from 2 months to 2 years
In the first year of life, beavers are under the vigilant control of older relatives. Growing up, they are selected outside and with adults gradually merge into the working rhythm of life. Young people are too curious, often fall into dangerous situations. Since beavers take care of their cubs in the most serious way, the growing offspring feel safe in the territory occupied by the family.
Until the end of the first year of life, young rodents reach a weight of about 10 kg. Until the age of two, they live with their parents in their home. The beaver family consists of a parental pair and their offspring of the current and last year.
For two years, beaver parents have been trying to teach children everything that they will need in an independent life: the construction of dams, housing, storage facilities and how to store food for the winter, how to protect yourself from natural enemies.
At the age of two, trained young beavers must leave the family. They scatter around the district in search of a couple and, together with it, arrange their own housing.
Care for animals of different species about their offspring
Most of the species of animals care and protect their offspring better than some negligent people. How animals (beavers) take care of their cubs, you already know. Here are some curious facts about how parental care manifests itself in other representatives of the animal world:
• Lions always accompany the lion cub for a walk, staying close to him and controlling his every move.
• The elephant will happily adopt an abandoned orphaned elephant and will take care of it no worse than her own mother.
• Squirrel every time before leaving home, carefully wraps its babies, as they are born completely naked.
• When there is intense heat, a protective pigment is released in the milk of a female hippo. Little hippo feeds on reddish milk.
• If the conditions for the birth of the cub are unfavorable, the female armadillo is able to freeze the pregnancy. A baby can be born even after 2 years.