THE BEAVER
by Jackie
THE BEAVER
by Jackie
The beaver is a mammal in North America. It is in the rodent family and is a master engineer.
Its teeth and paws build lodges, dams, storehouses and canals. Beavers live near and in water and have beautiful fur which is waterproof. The scientific name for the beavers in Latin is Caster Canadensis. Today they live in North America, Scandinavia, Germany and Siberia, but are extinct in England.
Beavers grow as big as 4 feet long and 60 pounds as an adult. They have a thick body and long reddish-brown outer hair. They also have waterproof, soft and dense underfur which lets them swim in icy water. Their toes are all different and they are webbed. The second toe on each back foot is double clawed and combs the fur like a brush. The front feet are small and hand-like, and the tail is like a paddle with scaly skin and also a prop for swimming. To know that there is danger, the beavers tail slaps the water like hands splashing in a pool. The beaver has a short thick head, small rounded ears and nose valves that close under water and allow it to stay submerged under the water for up to 15 minutes. They have 20 teeth that are well developed, but are very hard in the front and soft in the back. If the beaver never chewed on wood, their two front teeth would grow longer and longer. When they eat, their teeth wear down so they do not grow too long.
The beaver lives in colonies and they work together and live only about 19 years. It takes 4 months for a beaver to have a litter of two to eight babies called kits that are born in the spring. The mother will also raise orphaned beavers. The kits weigh from 8-24 oz. and are about 15 inches long and their tail is three and one half inches. The beavers eyes are open at birth. They learn to swim at 1 month old. The family is usually just 2 adults and 2 children. They give birth at two and one half years old. The mother drives the first litter off before she has the second litter. Then the first litter go off on their own and make a lodge.
They settle in the banks of lakes and rivers. Their dams cause floods. They gnaw on saplings and drag them to the dam site where they add clay and stones on top of the trees. Beavers can build up to 35 feet in a week. Some dams 1,000 feet long have been found. But these were the work of generations of beavers. Lodges look like heaps of tree branches and mud. It has a platform held together with clay and dead leaves. The lodge has a domed shaped roof about five feet high. The lodges walls are plastered with mud. The entrance is under water so the beavers can enter underneath ice. This also prevents attacks from other animals. The beaver walks very clumsily on land, but prefers to swim. They dig canals in flat areas because it helps them drag logs more.
In the winter they eat fresh green bark and wood. They sink the wood for winter storage. The most common type of trees that they eat are poplar, willow and birch. In the summer they eat water plants, berries, swampwood and fruit. The beaver builds and gathers food at night and spends the winter resting. They only leave their lodge to grab food from the storehouse.
Beavers are considered an endangered species since the 1850's. They have scent glands which produce a liquid called castoreum, which is used in perfume. In the middle ages around the years 1,000 to 1500, the castoreum was used as medicine for headaches. Castoreum has salicylic acid that is the basic ingredient in aspirin which the beaver gets from eating willow trees. In the middle ages men hunted for the beavers scaly tail to eat. It was a culinary delicacy and so was the meat. Men have been trapping their fur since the 1600's. Skins were used for caps and capes. There have been bans on hunting beavers since the early 1900's, and becauses of this the beavers are recovering and the population is growing.
John Whitaker Jr., The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mammals, Chanticleer Press Edition, New York, 1980