Our country is rich not only in its minerals, but also in the variety of living things that lead an aquatic or near-water lifestyle. One of the brightest representatives is the beaver. These hardworking animals spend the lion's share of their time in the aquatic environment, inhabiting streams, rivers, lakes. Let's find out why a beaver needs a dam, how it builds it, and what kind of life these animals generally lead.
Beaver - who is it?
The common beaver, or river beaver, is a semi-aquatic mammal animal belonging to the order of rodents. He is one of two modern representatives of the family of the same name. His relative is a Canadian beaver. These creatures are considered the largest rodents of the animal world of the Old World.
The beaver dam (photo is present in the article) is an amazing creation, most resembling a structure erected by man. Over time, people even began to use the beaver building skill for their personal purposes. But we will talk about this later, and now we will find out what these amazing “workaholics” look like.
The appearance of the animal
Beavers are quite large rodents, fully adapted to the semi-aquatic lifestyle. The body length of the male can reach 1.5 meters, and the height at the withers - up to 36 centimeters. Adults weigh up to 33 kilograms.
The beaver's body is squat and has a barrel-shaped shape. The limbs are five-fingered, but shortened. The hind legs are much stronger than the front. Since beavers spend most of their lives in water, there are special swimming membranes between their fingers.
The beaver fur is one of the most beautiful and consists of coarse outer hair. The fur undercoat is thick but silky. The color of the coat is heterogeneous, since its color depends on the heredity of beavers. Body color can vary from light chestnut to brown-dark. Paws and tail are usually black.
Lifestyle
As has been repeatedly said, these animals lead a semi-aquatic lifestyle. They prefer to settle along the shores of slowly flowing streams, ponds, lakes, reservoirs, quarries and irrigation canals. Beavers will never begin to live in wide and fast rivers, as well as in bodies of water that freeze in the winter to the bottom.
Since the dam, built by beavers, consists of various woods, when choosing a place of residence for these animals, the presence of shrubs and trees, mainly soft hardwoods, along the banks of the reservoir. An important role in this is played by the abundance of aquatic and coastal vegetation (including grass), which forms the basis of their diet.
As you know, these animals live both singly and in groups. Usually a complete family includes 5-7 individuals - a married couple and young animals from the past and current years. These rodents mark the borders of their own territories with the help of the secret of the musk glands that make up the so-called beaver stream.
River "engineers"
Beavers gained wide popularity and universal respect as skillful four-legged "civil engineers", as well as lumberjacks and creators of unique dams. These animals became not only a symbol of perseverance and hard work, but also conveyed some experience to people. The fact is that the beaver dam is a real breakthrough in construction and a ready-made engineering solution that a person borrowed from these river inhabitants!
Scientists have noticed that beavers that live in large bodies of water may not build any dams at all. They just need to dig a hole in the steep bank. But this is the exception rather than the norm. Nevertheless, these animals became famous for their phenomenal ability to block entire streams with dams, as well as for the valuable skill of building islet huts that were inaccessible to enemies.
How do beavers build their dams?
The beaver dam is constructed as follows. The animals first gnaw the base of the tree, after which it falls. A fallen trunk is the finished foundation of the dam. Next is the process of strengthening it. Beavers do this with twigs, gravel, silt, clay and stones. It is curious that they are repairing their structures using the same “improvised” means.
Why are they building dams?
The beaver dam (photo below) is needed primarily to change the direction of the river flow. This, in turn, is necessary for the animals in order for the water to flood other territories, forming a pond there. It is in this place that the beaver will build itself a hut (dwelling).
By the way, for the construction of houses river "engineers" use the same means as for the construction of dams: clay, sticks, stones, silt, branches of shrubs and trees.
The beaver dam is perhaps the most important component of their life. Without such an activity, they simply will not survive: the animals will have nowhere to store food supplies, spend the night, hibernate and hide from enemies!
What are the dimensions of the dams?
The beaver dam under water can reach a thickness of more than 3 meters, to the top they narrow to 60 centimeters. Zoologists who conducted natural observations on these rodents claim that their structures are so strong that they can easily support not only a person, but a whole horse!
What do beaver huts look like?
These houses look like inverted cups. A well-constructed beaver dam will hide them from enemies, and water will never flood their homes. Therefore, animals have nothing to fear. Huts, as a rule, have two rooms. One of them is filled with beavers with small gravel, and the other with edibles.