River beavers. Beavers: photos and pictures of beavers, description of the animal. Dams and huts

The beaver is a semi-aquatic mammal that belongs to the rodent order and the beaver family. Beavers first appeared in Asia. Habitat: Europe, Asia, North America. In the past, these poor animals almost completely disappeared from the face of the earth. Naturally, through the fault of man, because many fur coats and hats were made from beautiful beaver skins.

The beaver's body length reaches up to 1.2 m. It can weigh about 30 kg. In nature, a beaver lives up to 17 years. The beaver has strong and flattened claws. Wide, short ears, small eyes, short legs, funny round tail. Fur color can vary from light chestnut to black.

Beavers settle near lakes, ponds, streams, reservoirs, rivers, and sometimes dig a burrow for themselves. Beavers are herbivores; they feed on tree shoots, bark, and various herbaceous plants. Beavers have very good teeth, which is why they sometimes fell trees by cutting them down at the base. Their teeth and jaw can be compared to a saw.

Beavers build their burrows from mud and branches. The house turns out to be half submerged under water; the hole has a main chamber located at the top. The entrance and “pantry” are used to store food supplies; they are located underground. Beavers gnaw trees at the base to sharpen them, separate them into different pieces and get the material they need. Beavers need mud, stones and trees to build dams, so they isolate their burrows, around them they form something like a small pond, the water level always remains the same. When it's cold, in winter, beavers are forced to swim underwater to get to their food supplies, because the surface is covered with ice.

The main enemies are foxes, wolves, brown bears and humans.
The mating season for beavers begins in January and ends at the end of February. Mating occurs in water. Females carry their cubs for 105 days. Little beavers are born around April and May. They are born pubescent, semi-sighted, weighing 500 g. After about 2 days, beavers can begin to swim. Mom helps the beavers. They begin to eat leaves after 3-4 months, but the mother still feeds them with milk. After only 2 years, the beavers move out.

The beaver is a hardworking and persistent animal that has taught people a lot. Even people have borrowed something from these smart animals. For example, some engineering solutions and techniques in dam construction.

A selection of beaver photos

However, in colloquial language the word beaver widely used as a synonym for beaver(How fox And fox, ferret And ferret).

Origin

The beaver has beautiful fur, which consists of coarse guard hairs and very thick silky underfur. The fur color ranges from light chestnut to dark brown, sometimes black. The tail and limbs are black. Shedding occurs once a year, at the end of spring, but continues almost until winter. In the anal area there are paired glands, wen and the beaver stream itself, which secretes a strong-smelling secret - the beaver stream. The prevailing opinion about the use of wen as a lubricant for fur from getting wet is wrong. The secretion of the wen performs a communicative function, exclusively carrying information about the owner (gender, age). The smell of a beaver stream serves as a guide to other beavers about the border of the territory of a beaver settlement; it is unique, like fingerprints. The secretion of the wen, used in conjunction with the stream, allows you to keep the beaver tag in a “working” state for longer due to its oily structure, which evaporates much longer than the secretion of the beaver stream.

Spreading

In early historical times, the common beaver was distributed throughout the forest-meadow zone of Europe and Asia, but due to intensive hunting, by the beginning of the 20th century, the beaver was practically exterminated in most of its range. The beaver's current range is largely the result of acclimatization and reintroduction efforts. In Europe, it lives in the Scandinavian countries, the lower reaches of the Rhone (France), the Elbe basin (Germany), the Vistula basin (Poland), in the forest and partly forest-steppe zones of the European part of Russia. In Russia, the beaver is also found in the Northern Trans-Urals. There are scattered habitats of the common beaver in the upper reaches of the Yenisei, Kuzbass, Baikal region, Khabarovsk Territory, and Kamchatka. In addition, it is found in Mongolia (Urungu and Bimen rivers) and in Northeast China (Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region).

Lifestyle

Beaver lodge

In early historical times, beavers everywhere inhabited the forest, taiga and forest-steppe zones of Eurasia, along the floodplains of rivers reaching the forest-tundra to the north, and semi-deserts to the south. Beavers prefer to settle along the banks of slow-flowing rivers, oxbow lakes, ponds and lakes, reservoirs, irrigation canals and quarries. Avoid wide and fast rivers, as well as reservoirs that freeze to the bottom in winter. For beavers, it is important to have trees and shrubs of soft deciduous trees along the banks of a reservoir, as well as an abundance of aquatic and coastal herbaceous vegetation that makes up their diet. Beavers are excellent swimmers and divers. Large lungs and liver provide them with such reserves of air and arterial blood that beavers can stay under water for 10-15 minutes, swimming up to 750 m during this time. On land, beavers are quite clumsy.

Beavers live alone or in families. A complete family consists of 5-8 individuals: a married couple and young beavers - the offspring of the past and current years. A family plot is sometimes occupied by the family for many generations. A small pond is occupied by one family or single beaver. On larger bodies of water, the length of the family plot along the shore ranges from 0.3 to 2.9 km. Beavers rarely move more than 200 m away from water. The length of the area depends on the amount of food. In areas rich in vegetation, areas may touch each other and even intersect. Beavers mark the boundaries of their territory with the secretion of their musk glands - beaver stream. Marks are applied to special mounds of mud, silt and branches 30 cm high and up to 1 m wide. Beavers communicate with each other using odorous marks, poses, tail strikes on the water and whistle-like calls. When in danger, a swimming beaver slaps its tail loudly on the water and dives. The clap serves as an alarm signal to all beavers within earshot.

Beaver trail

Beavers are active at night and at dusk. In summer, they leave their homes at dusk 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 hardly appear on the surface. At temperatures below −20 °C, animals remain in their homes.

Huts and dams

Beavers live in burrows or huts. The entrance to a beaver's home is always located under water. Beavers dig burrows in steep banks; they are a complex labyrinth with 4-5 entrances. The walls and ceiling of the hole are carefully leveled and compacted. The living chamber inside the hole is located at a depth of no more than 1 m. The width of the living chamber is a little more than a meter, the height is 40-50 centimeters. The floor must be 20 centimeters above the water level. If the water in the river rises, the beaver also raises the floor, scraping soil from the ceiling. Sometimes the ceiling of the hole is destroyed and in its place a flooring of branches and brushwood is built, turning the hole into a transitional type of shelter - a semi-hut. In the spring, during high water, beavers build nests on the tops of bushes from branches and twigs with a bedding of dry grass.

Traces of beaver work

Huts are built in places where digging a hole is impossible - on low, swampy banks and in shallows. Beavers rarely begin building new housing before the end of August. The huts have the appearance of a cone-shaped pile of brushwood, held together by silt and earth, up to 1-3 m high and up to 10-12 m in diameter. The walls of the hut are carefully coated with silt and clay, so that it turns into a real fortress, impregnable to predators; air enters through the ceiling. Despite popular belief, beavers apply clay using their front paws, not their tail (the tail serves only as a rudder). Inside the hut there are manholes into the water and a platform rising above the water level. With the first frost, beavers additionally insulate their huts with a new layer of clay. In winter, the temperature in the huts remains above zero, the water in the holes does not freeze, and beavers have the opportunity to go out into the under-ice layer of the reservoir. In severe frosts there is steam above the huts, which is a sign of habitation. Sometimes in the same beaver settlement there are both huts and burrows. Beavers are very clean and never litter their homes with leftover food or excrement.

In reservoirs with changing water levels, as well as on small streams and rivers, beaver families build their famous dams (dams). This allows them to raise, maintain and regulate the water level in a reservoir. Dams are built below the beaver town from tree trunks, branches and brushwood, held together by clay, silt, pieces of driftwood and other materials that beavers bring in their teeth or front paws. If the reservoir has a fast current and there are stones at the bottom, they are also used as building material. The weight of stones can reach 15-18 kg.

Beaver Dam (Vologda Region)

For the construction of the dam, places where trees grow closer to the edge of the shore are selected. Construction begins with beavers vertically sticking branches and trunks into the bottom, strengthening the gaps with branches and reeds, filling the voids with silt, clay and stones. They often use a tree that has fallen into the river as a supporting frame, gradually covering it on all sides with building material. Sometimes branches in beaver dams take root, giving them additional strength. The usual length of the dam is 20-30 m, width at the base is 4-6 m, at the crest - 1-2 m; the height can reach 4.8 m, although usually 2 m. The old dam can easily support the weight of a person. The record in the construction of dams belongs, however, not to ordinary beavers, but to Canadian beavers - the dam they built on the river. Jefferson (Montana), reached a length of 700 m. The shape of the dam depends on the speed of the current - where it is slow, the dam is almost straight; on fast rivers it is curved towards the flow. If the current is very strong, beavers build small additional dams further up the river. The dam is often provided with a drain to prevent it from being breached by floods. On average, it takes a beaver family about a week to build a 10 m dam. Beavers carefully monitor the safety of the dam and patch it if it leaks. Sometimes several families working in shifts participate in the construction.

Beaver Dam (Northern California)

Swedish ethologist Wilson () and French zoologist Richard (,) made a major contribution to the study of beaver behavior during dam construction. It turned out that the main stimulus for construction is the sound of flowing water. Possessing excellent hearing, beavers accurately determined where the sound had changed, which meant changes had occurred in the structure of the dam. At the same time, they did not even pay attention to the lack of water - the beavers reacted in the same way to the sound of water recorded on a tape recorder. Further experiments showed that sound, apparently, is not the only stimulus. Thus, beavers clogged a pipe laid through a dam with silt and branches, even if it ran along the bottom and was “inaudible.” At the same time, it remains not entirely clear how beavers distribute responsibilities among themselves during collective work.

A canal dug by beavers

To build and prepare food, beavers cut down trees, gnawing them at the base, gnawing off branches, then dividing the trunk into parts. A beaver fells an aspen with a diameter of 5-7 cm in 5 minutes; a tree with a diameter of 40 cm is felled and cut up overnight, so that by morning only a sanded stump and a pile of shavings remains at the place where the animal works. The trunk of a tree gnawed by a beaver takes on a characteristic “hourglass” shape. A beaver gnaws, rising on its hind legs and leaning on its tail. Its jaws act like a saw: to fell a tree, the beaver rests its upper incisors on its bark and begins to quickly move its lower jaw from side to side, making 5-6 movements per second. The beaver's incisors are self-sharpening: only the front side is covered with enamel, the back side consists of less hard dentin. When a beaver chews on something, the dentin wears down faster than the enamel, so the leading edge of the tooth remains sharp all the time.

Beavers eat some of the branches of a fallen tree on the spot, while others are demolished and towed or floated across the water to their home or to the site of dam construction. Every year, walking the same routes for food and building materials, they trample paths on the shore that are gradually filled with water - beaver canals. They float wood food along them. The length of the channel reaches hundreds of meters with a width of 40-50 cm and a depth of up to 1 m. Beavers always keep the channels clean.

Nutrition

A tree nibbled by a beaver

Beaver "dining room" in an aspen forest. Ivanovo region, Savinsky district

Beavers are strictly herbivorous. They feed on the bark and shoots of trees, preferring aspen, willow, poplar and birch, as well as various herbaceous plants (water lily, egg capsule, iris, cattail, reed, etc., up to 300 items). The abundance of softwood trees is a necessary condition for their habitat. Hazel, linden, elm, bird cherry and some other trees are of minor importance in their diet. Alder and oak are not eaten, but are used for buildings. The daily amount of food accounts for up to 20% of a beaver's weight. Large teeth and a powerful bite allow beavers to easily cope with solid plant food. Cellulose-rich foods are digested with the participation of intestinal microflora. Typically, the beaver consumes only a few tree species; To switch to a new diet, it requires an adaptation period, during which microorganisms adapt to the new diet.

In summer, the proportion of herbaceous food in the beaver diet increases. In autumn, beavers prepare wood food for the winter. Beavers store their reserves in water, where they retain their nutritional qualities until February. The volume of reserves can be huge - up to 60-70 cubic meters per family. To prevent food from freezing into the ice, beavers usually heat it below the water level under steep overhanging banks. Thus, even after the pond freezes, food remains available to the beavers under the ice.

Reproduction

Beaver with cub

Beavers are monogamous and the female is dominant. Offspring are born once a year. The mating season lasts from mid-January to the end of February; Mating occurs in the water under the ice. Pregnancy lasts 105-107 days. Cubs (1-6 per litter) will be born in April - May. They are semi-sighted, well-furred, and weigh on average 0.45 kg. After 1-2 days they can already swim; the mother trains the beaver cubs by literally pushing them into the underwater corridor. At the age of 3-4 weeks, beaver cubs switch to feeding on leaves and soft stems of grass, but the mother continues to feed them with milk until 3 months. Grown-up young animals usually do not leave their parents for another 2 years. Only at 2 years old do young beavers reach sexual maturity and move out.

In captivity, a beaver lives up to 35 years, in the wild 10-17 years.

The impact of beavers on ecology

The appearance of beavers in rivers and especially their construction of dams has a beneficial effect on the ecology of aquatic and riverine biotopes. Numerous mollusks and aquatic insects settle in the resulting spill, which in turn attract muskrats and waterfowl. Birds on their feet bring fish eggs. The fish, once in favorable conditions, begin to reproduce. Trees felled by beavers serve as food for hares and many ungulates, which gnaw the bark from the trunks and branches. The sap flowing from undermined trees in the spring is loved by butterflies and ants, followed by birds. Beavers are protected by muskrats; muskrats often live in their huts along with their owners. Dams help purify water, reducing its turbidity; silt lingers in them.

At the same time, beaver dams can cause damage to human buildings. There are known cases when spills caused by beavers flooded and washed away streets and railroad tracks and even caused crashes.

Population status and economic importance

Beavers have long been hunted for their beautiful and durable fur. In addition to valuable fur, they produce beaver stream, used in perfumery and medicine. Beaver meat is edible; however, they are natural carriers of salmonellosis pathogens. (It is curious that in the Catholic tradition, beaver meat is considered lean, since the beaver, according to church canons, was considered a fish due to its scaly tail.)

As a result of predatory fishing, the common beaver was on the verge of extinction: by the beginning of the 20th century, only 6-8 isolated populations remained (in the Rhone, Elbe, Don, Dnieper basins, in the Northern Trans-Urals, the upper reaches of the Yenisei), with a total of 1200 animals. To preserve this valuable animal, a number of effective measures have been taken to protect and restore numbers in European countries. They began with a ban on beaver hunting, established in 1845 in Norway. By 1998, the beaver population in Europe and Russia was estimated at 430,000.

The common beaver has a minimum risk status on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The West Siberian and Tuvan subspecies of the common beaver are listed in the Red Book of Russia. The main threat to it at present comes from land reclamation measures, water pollution and the construction of hydroelectric power stations. Detergents that pollute water bodies wash away the natural protective layer and deteriorate the quality of beaver fur.

Beavers in Russia

where the shore of the Grand Duke is adjacent to the boyars, here the beavers drive. And the beavers of the Grand Duke and the boyars and divide the beavers according to the old times, but the boyars do not keep nets and rods and sedges and do not set up logs and koshes. And where the prince’s or boyar’s shore is special, but the Grand Duke’s shore did not come, then they set up logs and ladles, and keep dogs, and catch beavers as best they can.

The traces or tools left behind for catching beavers imposed an obligation on the verv (community) to either look for the thief or pay a fine. In those days, beavers were caught with nets and traps. Later, by the 17th century, the number of beavers had already noticeably decreased, and their fishing moved mainly to Siberia. In 1635 it was already forbidden to set traps for beavers. In the Trade Book of the 16th century, the usual price for a black beaver is 2 rubles. Judging by the degree of collection of duties (1586, Novgorod), the beaver was approximately 1.3 times more valuable

There are two types of beavers in nature: the common beaver, which lives in Eurasia, and the Canadian beaver, which lives in North America. How these two types differ and how they are similar, we will consider further...

Both species have related roots with, as evidenced by the similarities in the lower jaw. But the behavior of these representatives of rodents is different. They live near water, which is their native element. Neither the Eurasian nor the Canadian beaver can exist without water. The common and Canadian beaver have certain differences, which is why they are classified as different populations.

Differences between Canadian and common beavers

Externally, both representatives of the species are extremely similar, but the Eurasian beaver is larger in size. It has a less round and larger head, while its muzzle is shorter. The common beaver has smaller undercoat and a narrower tail. In addition, the Eurasian has shorter limbs, so he walks poorly on his hind legs.

The nasal bones of the common beaver are longer and the nostrils are triangular in shape, while the Canadian has triangular nasal openings. The European beaver has larger anal glands. There are also differences in the color of the fur.

Almost 70% of Eurasian beavers have light brown or brown fur, 20% have chestnut fur, 8% have dark brown fur, and 4% have black fur. 50% of Canadian beavers have a light brown skin tone, 25% have brown skin, and 5% have black skin.

In addition to external differences, these two representatives of the family have differences in the number of chromosomes. Canadian beavers have 40 chromosomes, while common beavers have 48. The different number of chromosomes caused the unsuccessful crossing of these representatives of different continents.

Beavers are the owners of thick, valuable fur.

After repeated attempts to crossbreed a Eurasian female and an American male, the females either did not become pregnant at all or gave birth to dead babies. Most likely, interspecific reproduction is impossible. Between both populations there is not only a barrier of thousands of kilometers, but also differences in DNA.

Beaver sizes and appearance

Female beavers are larger than males, and females are dominant. The average weight of Canadian beavers is 15-35 kilograms, most often they weigh 20 kilograms with a body length of 1 meter. Canadian beavers grow throughout their lives, so older individuals can weigh up to 45 kilograms.

Eurasian beavers, on average, weigh 30-32 kilograms, with a body length of 1-1.3 meters, and a height of 35 centimeters.

Canadian beavers have a squat body. They have 5 fingers on their limbs with flat claws. There are membranes between the fingers. The tail is similar in shape to the body, its width is 10-12 centimeters and its length is 30 centimeters. The top of the tail is covered with horny plates, and hairs grow between them. From the middle of the tail stretches a horny protrusion, similar to the keel of a ship.

The animal's eyes are small and its ears are short. Canadian beavers have a thick, practical undercoat with coarse guard hairs. Beautiful fur is highly prized commercially.

Beaver behavior and nutrition

Beavers are herbivorous mammals; their favorite food is water lilies and sedges. Beavers eat bark from alder, poplar, maple, aspen, and birch trees, but still prefer young shoots.

At first glance, it may seem that beavers harm the environment, but this opinion is erroneous. Beavers create wetlands that are very important to the ecosystem. These animals cut down trees, but not in any place, but only where it is convenient to drag the tree to the water. Beavers use trunks to build dams, and they gnaw branches, bark, and leaves.

All beavers are herbivores.

By constructing dams, beavers create dams in which insects settle; as a result, birds fly to the dams, bringing fish eggs on their paws and feathers. Thus, fish are bred in the dams.

The water seeping through the dams is cleared of silt and heavy suspended matter. Some plants die in the dams, and a large amount of dead wood is created, which is important for the existence of certain plants and animals.

The remains of fallen trees are used as food for ungulates and various insects. That is, the construction activity of beavers benefits nature. But such dams can cause inconvenience to humans: the dams overflow and flood crops, and wash away railway embankments and roads.

Beavers live in burrows that they dig in steep banks. These burrows are very long and are a real labyrinth with several entrances. Beavers make the floor in their burrows above the water level; if the pond overflows, the rodent scrapes the earth from the ceiling and thereby raises the floor level.

Beavers build not only burrows, but also “houses.” They pile branches in the shallows and then cover them with clay and silt. Inside, there is free space rising above the water. Beavers enter the house from under the water. Beaver houses reach a height of 3 meters, and their diameter is about 10 meters. Such houses have very strong walls that protect the owners well from predators.

Beavers build their houses using their front paws. By winter, houses are additionally insulated with a layer of earth and clay, thanks to which they always maintain a positive temperature, even when it is frosty outside. The water at the entrance to the burrow does not freeze. These rodents love cleanliness; there is no excrement or food waste in their homes.

Beavers are social animals and form their own families. One family consists of approximately 10 individuals - parents and young animals that have not reached sexual age. Beaver families can live in the same territory for a whole century. The size of the territory owned by the family along the coast is 3-4 kilometers. As a rule, beavers do not move further than 200-300 meters from the shore.

Young mature beavers, after leaving their family, live alone for some time, in built holes, but over time they acquire their own family.

Dam construction

The famous beaver structure is the dam.

Why do beavers build dams? So that they have more water. Quite often, a family of beavers settles on a small river or stream in order to raise the water level in them, rodents and erect these grandiose structures. Thanks to the dam, the river turns into a small lake, which is a favorite habitat for beavers.

Listen to the beaver's voice

The life of beavers depends entirely on the river. In water, beavers mate, enter shelter and escape from predators. These rodents can stay under water for no more than 15 minutes. When there is obvious danger, the ability to hold air is of great help to beavers.

Before building a dam, beavers determine the construction site. Rodents choose places where opposite banks are located close to each other. Beavers also pay attention to the presence of trees on the shore, since they are the main building material. Rodents gnaw tree trunks and stick them vertically into the river bottom; the space between the trunks is sealed with stones and silt. The surface part is strengthened with branches and clay. Such structures are very strong and reliable.

The dam built by beavers can reach a length of 30 meters. At the base the dam is wider - about 5-6 meters, and at the top the structure narrows to 2 meters. The height of the structure reaches 3-5 meters. Dams built by beavers have been recorded as being 500 and 850 meters long.

If the current on the river is strong, then the beavers build additional dams and make special drains that prevent the destruction of the structure when the river floods. Rodents constantly monitor their creations, instantly eliminating minor damage and leaks.

Reproduction and lifespan of beavers

Canadian beavers mate for life; separation occurs only after death. The mating season for animals begins in winter. The mating process takes place in water. Pregnancy in Canadian beavers lasts 128 days, and in common beavers it lasts 107 days.

2-6 babies are born weighing up to 400 grams. The female feeds the beavers with milk for 3 months. 1 week after birth, babies are already able to swim. Males are fully formed by the age of 3. Most females also reach puberty at 3 years of age. Females are capable of producing offspring once every 2 years.

In the wild, Canadian beavers live 20-25 years, and under favorable living conditions they can live up to 35 years.

Number of species

Not so long ago, there were 100 million Canadian beavers in North America, but by the end of the 19th century, the rodents were almost completely exterminated. Only minor remnants of the once large population remain.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a ban on the destruction of beavers was established. Today in America the number of Canadian beavers is more than 10 million individuals. In Eurasia, the situation was much worse - by the end of the 20th century, no more than 1,200 individuals remained in this vast territory.

The ban on their destruction has been in effect for 100 years, as a result the number has increased to 700 thousand rodents. In many European countries, beavers were completely exterminated in the 17th-19th centuries, but today they have received a rebirth there.

If you find an error, please highlight a piece of text and click Ctrl+Enter.

Beavers are a genus of mammals of the rodent order, which includes two species: the common beaver (Castor fiber), a resident of the Atlantic coast to the Baikal region and Mongolia, and the Canadian beaver (Castor canadensis), found in North America.

Description of the rodent

The beaver's body weight is about 30 kg, the body length reaches 1-1.5 m, females are usually slightly larger in size than males. The rodent has a blunt muzzle, small ears, short, strong legs with powerful claws. The beaver's fur consists of two layers: on top there are hard red-brown guard hairs, and underneath there is a thick gray undercoat that protects the beaver from hypothermia. The tail is bare, black, flattened and wide, covered with scales. Near the base of the tail are two glands that produce an odorous substance known as “beaver squirt.”

Beavers are herbivorous rodents. Their diet includes bark and shoots of trees (aspen, willow, poplar, birch), various herbaceous plants (water lily, egg capsule, iris, cattail, reed). They can also feed on hazel, linden, elm, and bird cherry. They readily eat acorns. Large teeth and a strong bite help beavers to eat fairly solid plant foods, and the microflora of their intestinal tract digests cellulose foods well.

The daily required amount of food reaches 20% of a beaver's weight.

In the summer, the diet of beavers is dominated by grassy food; in the fall, rodents actively prepare woody food for the winter. Each family stores 60-70 m3 of wood. Beavers leave their reserves in the water, where they retain their food quality until the end of winter.

Until the twentieth century, beavers were very widespread, but due to their mass extermination, their habitat has recently decreased significantly. The common beaver is found in Europe, Russia, China and Mongolia. Its closest relative, the Canadian beaver, lives in North America.

Common Beaver Species

The body length is 1-1.3 m, height is about 35.5 cm, weight is in the range of 30-32 kg. The body is squat, the paws are shortened with five fingers, the hind legs are stronger than the front ones. Swimming membranes are located between the fingers. The claws are strong and flat. The tail is paddle-shaped, flat, reaches 30 cm in length and 10-13 cm in width. The tail is pubescent only at the base, the rest of its surface is covered with horny scutes. The eyes are small, the ears are wide, short, and slightly protrude above the fur. Under water, the ears and nostrils close, and the eyes have special nictitating membranes. The common beaver has beautiful fur made up of coarse guard hairs and a thick, silky undercoat. The coat color ranges from light chestnut to dark brown, sometimes black. The tail and paws are black. Molting occurs once a year.

In the anal area there are paired glands, wen and the so-called “beaver stream”, the smell of which is a guide for other beavers, as it informs about the border of the family’s territory.

The common beaver is distributed in Europe (Scandinavian countries, France, Germany, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine), Russia, Mongolia and China.

Body length 90-117 cm; weight about 32 kg. The body is round, the chest is wide, the head is short with large dark ears and bulging eyes. The coat color is reddish or blackish brown. Tail length 20-25 cm, width 13-15 cm, oval shape, pointed end, surface covered with black horny scutes.

The species is distributed in North America, Alaska, Canada, USA, and Mexico. It was introduced to the Scandinavian countries and Russia.

Sexual dimorphism in beavers is weakly expressed, females are slightly larger in size than males.

Beavers usually live along the banks of forest rivers, streams and lakes. They do not live on wide and fast rivers, as well as reservoirs that freeze to the bottom in winter. For these rodents, tree and shrub vegetation along the banks of reservoirs and an abundance of aquatic and coastal herbaceous vegetation are important. In suitable places they build dams from fallen trees, construct canals, and use them to float logs to the dam.

Beavers have two types of housing: a burrow and a hut. The huts look like floating islands made of a mixture of brushwood and mud, their height is 1-3 meters, their diameter is up to 10 m, the entrance is located under water. Beavers spend the night in such huts, store food for the winter, and hide from predators.

Beavers dig burrows on steep and steep banks; these are complex labyrinths with 4-5 entrances. The walls and ceiling are leveled and compacted. Inside, at a depth of up to 1 m, a living chamber is arranged up to 1 width and height 40-50 cm. The floor is located 20 cm above the water level.

Beavers are excellent swimmers and divers; they can stay underwater for 10-15 minutes and swim up to 750 m during this time.

Beavers live either alone or in families of 5-8 individuals. The same family has occupied their plot for many years. Beavers do not walk 200 m from water. Rodents mark the boundaries of their territory with a beaver stream.

The main periods of beaver activity are night and twilight.

Beavers are monogamous rodents. Breeding occurs once a year. The mating season begins in mid-January and lasts until the end of February. Pregnancy lasts 105-107 days. One litter contains 1-6 cubs, which are born in April-May. Babies are born semi-sighted, well-furred, and their weight is approximately 0.45 kg. After a few days they can already swim. The female teaches them to swim, pushing them out of the hut into the underwater corridor. At 3-4 weeks, the beaver cubs begin to eat leaves and stems of grass, and until 3 months the mother feeds them with milk. The young live with their parents until they are two years old, after which they reach puberty and begin an independent life.

In captivity, the life expectancy of beavers is up to 35 years, in the wild it is 10-17 years.

Natural enemies

Natural enemies of the river beaver are wolves, brown bears and foxes, but the greatest damage to the population of this species is caused by humans, exterminating beavers for their valuable fur and meat.

The common beaver is the largest rodent in Europe and the second largest in the world after.
The word "beaver" comes from an Indo-European language and is an incomplete duplication of the name for the color brown.
Until the middle of the 20th century, beaver fur was very popular in America, Europe and Russia, which is why the population of these animals decreased noticeably: there were 6-8 isolated populations of 1200 individuals left. To preserve the species, beaver hunting was prohibited. Currently, the common beaver has a minimal risk status, and the main threats to it are land reclamation activities, water pollution and hydroelectric power plants.
In addition to beautiful and durable fur, beavers are a source of beaver stream, which is used in perfumery and medicine. Beaver meat is also edible, but may contain salmonellosis pathogens. According to church canons, it is considered fasting.
In 2006, a beaver sculpture was unveiled in the city of Bobruisk (Belarus). There are also sculptures of this rodent in the Alpine Zoo (Innsbruck, Austria).

Beavers are large rodents widely known for their ability to build dams. However, in addition to this, scientists have collected some pretty interesting facts about beavers.

Dams built by beavers turn out to be the only structure in the world made by an animal that can be seen from space. They are built by beavers to protect their home from predators, which they place in the middle of the pond. When starting to build a dam, they always finish the job and subsequently prevent it from collapsing. The average height of the structure ranges from 1.2 to 1.5 meters, and the length can reach several tens of meters. The longest known dam was 0.7 km. Most often, dams are located near poplar or aspen groves, since the young bark of these trees is a favorite delicacy for beavers.

Beavers have very large lungs and a large liver. This structural feature of the body helps animals stay under water for a long time, about 15 minutes, while covering a distance of up to 0.7 km. In addition, they have a movable eyelid that protects their eyes and allows them to navigate in the water. The animal's tail regulates the depth of immersion and is also used instead of a keel.

Beavers are excellent family men. The cubs are under family care until they are two years old. And usually a family consists of two litters, last year and current year.

The average lifespan of animals is approximately 10-12 years. Mostly they die under trees they have gnawed. In captivity, the average lifespan of beavers almost doubles. The weight of an adult reaches from 15 to 30 kg, which is approximately equal to the weight of an 8-year-old child. Therefore, they are considered the largest rodents in Europe.

In addition, many interesting facts about beavers related to history are known.

Video:

For example, in Canada, the skins of these animals were used as a monetary equivalent. And in exchange for the skin you could buy a lot of useful things.

Catholics of the Middle Ages considered them fish, which allowed them to eat their meat during Lent. The Orthodox were not allowed to eat beaver meat at all, and during confession they could be asked whether this animal was eaten as food.

In Rus', before its conquest by the Mongols, beavers were considered valuable property, the theft of which was subject to a considerable fine for those times, amounting to 12 hryvnia. Beaver skins were valued much higher than fox and wolf skins.

There is a legend about King Solomon, which says that the secretion of beaver glands was used by him as a cure for headaches. The most interesting thing is that this may actually be true, since this substance contains a large amount of aspirin. In addition, the secretion of beaver glands is used by perfumers to create elite perfumes.