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.

The body weight of a beaver 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 paws with powerful claws. The beaver's coat consists of two layers: on top are coarse outer red-brown hairs, and underneath there is a thick gray undercoat that protects the beaver from hypothermia. The tail is naked, black, flattened and wide, covered with scales. Near the base of the tail are two glands that produce an odorous substance known as "beaver plume".

Beavers are herbivorous rodents. Their diet includes bark and shoots of trees (aspen, willow, poplar, birch), a variety of herbaceous plants (water lily, egg capsule, iris, cattail, reed). They can also feed on hazel, linden, elm, bird cherry. Willingly 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 food well.

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

In summer, grassy foods predominate in the diet of beavers; in autumn, rodents actively prepare woody food for the winter. Each family stores 60-70 m3 of timber. Beavers leave their stocks in the water, where they retain food qualities until the end of winter.

Until the 20th century, beavers were very widespread, but due to their mass extermination, their habitat has recently been significantly reduced. The common beaver is found in Europe, Russia, China and Mongolia. Its closest relative, the Canadian beaver, lives in North America.

Common types of beavers

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 nails are strong and flat. The tail is oar-shaped, flat, reaches 30 cm in length, 10-13 cm in width. The tail is pubescent only at the base, the rest of its surface is covered with horny shields. The eyes are small, the ears are wide, short, slightly protruding above the coat. Under water, the ear openings and nostrils close, there are special blinking membranes in front of the eyes. The common beaver is distinguished by beautiful fur, made of coarse guard hairs and a thick silky undercoat. Coat color from light chestnut to dark brown, sometimes black. The tail and paws are black. Shedding occurs once a year.

In the anal region 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), in Russia, Mongolia and China.

Body length 90-117 cm; weight about 32 kg. The body is rounded, 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 shields.

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

Sexual dimorphism in beavers is weakly expressed, females are slightly larger 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 water bodies, and the abundance of aquatic and coastal grassy vegetation are important. In suitable places, they build dams from fallen trees, construct canals, and along them the logs are rafted to the dam.

Beavers have two types of housing: a hole 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. In such huts, beavers spend the night, store food for the winter, and hide from predators.

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

Beavers swim and dive well, they can stay under water for 10-15 minutes, and swim up to 750 m during this time.

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

The main periods of beaver activity are night and twilight.

Beavers are monogamous rodents. Breeding takes place once a year. The mating season begins in mid-January and lasts until the end of February. Pregnancy lasts 105-107 days. In one brood there are 1-6 cubs that are born in April-May. Babies are born semi-sighted, well pubescent, their weight is approximately 0.45 kg. In 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 beavers begin to feed on the leaves and stems of herbs, until 3 months the mother feeds them with milk. The young live with their parents up to two years, after which they reach puberty and begin an independent life.

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

natural enemies

The 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 because of 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 the Indo-European language and is an incomplete doubling of the name for brown.
• Until the middle of the 20th century, beaver fur was very popular in America, Europe and Russia, due to which the population of these animals was noticeably reduced: 6-8 isolated populations of 1200 individuals remained. To preserve the species, beaver hunting was banned. Now the common beaver has a minimal risk status, and the main threat to it is land reclamation, water pollution and hydroelectric power plants.
• In addition to beautiful and durable fur, beavers are the source of the 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 sculpture of a beaver was opened in the city of Bobruisk (Belarus). There are also sculptures of this rodent in the Alpine Zoo (Innsbruck, Austria).

), modern beavers (lat. castor) lead the history of their existence from the ancient giant beavers that lived in Europe (species Trogontherium) and North America (species Castoroides) millions of years ago.

The evidence found showed that the ancient beavers did not build dams, lived in spacious burrows, and their life was not as closely connected with water bodies as their descendants.

Over millions of years, the appearance of these rodents has changed little, but modern beavers cannot boast of the strength and power of their ancestors - giant beavers had sharp incisors about fifteen centimeters long, a thick tail of more than half a meter, and they were as tall as a male black bear.

The previous two centuries were not the happiest in the life of beavers - they were actively exterminated, hunting for warm wool, which at that time was used as currency. And only in the last fifty years the situation began to change for the better, and these ancient intelligent animals are gradually regaining their positions in the wild.

In all the animal kingdom there are no more talented builders than beavers. With their ability to modify the surrounding landscape, they are second only to humans. Beavers are one of the few animals whose actions are based not only on instincts, but also on experience gained, they are able to learn and improve their engineering skills throughout their lives.

The main tool of the beaver's labor is sharp front teeth covered with strong enamel. These four incisors grow throughout life, and the beaver does not need to worry about premature wear. In addition, they constantly sharpen, remaining a reliable tool for construction.

All engineering activity of the beaver is dictated by the desire for comfort and safety. They build their houseboats - huts - in the middle of the reservoir, and break through the approaches to them under water in order to exclude any interference from uninvited guests. The huts themselves consist of large branches held together with mud.

In autumn, before the onset of frost, beavers fortify their houses with a new layer of mud, which, when frozen, turns the hut into a solid structure that can withstand the winter weather.

However, to build a houseboat, you must first build a dam, which forms a quiet backwater. To do this, beavers fell trees, and then, according to all the rules of engineering technology, lay them in the river, slowing down its flow.

Such dams become a cozy home not only for the builders themselves, but also for many other inhabitants of the reservoir - frogs, fish, birds and turtles.

Beavers never hibernate. They spend the whole winter in a warm, snow-covered hut, surrounded by their family - a female and six to eight cubs. So that the offspring do not starve, the head of the family stores tree branches, attaching them under water to the bottom of the dwelling. Even under a thick crust of ice, the family is provided with everything necessary.

Beavers are excellent swimmers and are able to stay under water for about fifteen minutes. In case of danger, the beaver dives quickly, loudly flapping its flat tail in the water. Upon hearing this signal, other beavers immediately follow suit.

Classification

Domain: eukaryotes

Kingdom: Animals

Type: chordates

Class: mammals

Squad: rodents

Family: beaver

View: common beaver

The beaver has sharp, self-sharpening teeth, with which it cuts down trees and prepares building material for its semi-submerged dwelling. This animal is monogamous and pairs for life.

The beaver family is a single entity, but the female is the head. They collect branches together, take them together to the territory chosen for the house, and also raise and feed their offspring together.

This mammal prefers to lead a twilight lifestyle and feeds exclusively on vegetation.

Habitat

About what beavers look like, they knew even in early historical times. Then they lived in the forests and meadow zones of Asia and Europe.

But by the first half of the 20th century, a significant part of these animals was exterminated due to the active extraction of their fur and a special secret - the beaver stream.

Today, the beaver can be found in France and Germany, in Scandinavian countries and Poland, in Belarus and the forest-steppe regions of Russia, mainly in its European part and the Northern Trans-Urals.

Its range also extends to Kuzbass, Khabarovsk Territory, Kamchatka and Tomsk. However, in these zones there are scattered foci.

Characteristic

The common beaver, or river beaver, is a semi-aquatic mammal. This animal belongs to the order of rodents and is considered the largest representative of the Old World.

Beavers have a very sensitive sense of smell, thanks to which they have the opportunity to hide from predators in time.

From a distance, a beaver can be confused with animals that lead a similar semi-aquatic lifestyle, such as and. In general, the animal, like the animals mentioned above, is valued for its fur.

Appearance

The way beavers look is influenced by their semi-aquatic lifestyle. The paws have membranes that allow the animals to swim quickly, and the flattened oar-shaped tail acts as a rudder.

The length of the body of the river beaver is from 1 to 1.3 m, it is squat with five-fingered limbs, which are somewhat shortened. The mass of the animal ranges from 30-32 kg, while females are usually larger than males.

On the black paws are flattened claws, they are somewhat reminiscent of limbs. On the second finger of the hind limbs, it is bifurcated and serves to comb the fur.

The tail is covered with hair only at the base, on the rest of it there are stiff, sparse hairs of short length. The horn keel is located along the central line.

The beaver's ears are small and wide, in the photo they are almost invisible under the fur, they close under water. This animal has small eyes, which, when immersed, are closed by nictitating membranes.

The jaw is also adapted to the way of life. The rear incisors are isolated - this feature allows the animal to gnaw under water. The molars, as a rule, are devoid of roots and they are formed only in old individuals.

In the photo you can see that the beaver has quite beautiful fur. It consists of hard guard hairs. There is a down - silky and quite thick.

The color can be light chestnut, dark brown, sometimes the color of the fur is very dark - almost black.

The beaver molts once a year - this process begins in late spring and can last until winter itself.

Key Features

Beavers are able to secrete a special secret with which they mark their territory. In addition, this liquid carries information about the owner - age and gender. The smell of each individual is unique, like human fingerprints.

When danger approaches, the beaver strongly strikes the surface of the water with its flat tail and immediately dives - the sound is quite loud and allows other individuals to hide in time

The river beaver is very clean and carefully monitors the condition of its fur, and the special liquid that it rubs into the wool allows it not to freeze even in very cold water. This lubricant repels water, which prevents the mammal from feeling cold.

On land, beavers move rather clumsily, but at the same time they are excellent swimmers.

They dive well, and their large lungs allow them to stay under water for a quarter of an hour. During this period of time, the animal is able to cover a distance of 750 m.

Housing construction deserves special attention:

• The creation of a house begins with a dam, which allows you to somewhat slow down the flow of a stream or river. The beaver lays branches and stones at the bottom - this way it ensures the reliability of the structure.

From above, the river beaver throws wood and debris, and closes the cracks with clay

• The finished dam has the shape of a triangle. When the water rises, the animal lays new branches. The whole process can take anywhere from a week to a month.
• Over time, the dwelling expands - the beaver builds canals, a “room” for storing supplies and the house itself, the height of which reaches 1 m, and the thickness of the walls is about 50 cm. Some entrances are under water and lead to the dry part of the hole, where the owners dry out and eat.

Beavers spend a significant part of their time in their home, especially cubs.

The beaver's dwelling requires a sufficient amount of building material, the role of which is played by branches. To get them, the animal gnaws through the trunks of nearby trees.

It takes about a day to prepare raw materials

Interesting! It takes no more than an hour for an adult male to gnaw through a trunk with a diameter of 15 cm!

First, the beaver gnaws the trunk several times from all sides, then freezes and listens to the crackling. This allows him to dodge the falling barrel in time.

But often an animal, doing such dangerous work, dies under a fallen tree.

The female helps the male to disassemble and carry the building material to the place of construction of the house. Together they divide the trunk into small parts, gnaw off branches and branches and gradually deliver them to their destination.

Nutrition

The diet of beavers is plant foods. They prefer:

• bark of softwood trees;
• young shoots;
• herbaceous plants.

They can also eat acorns. Of particular value to them are water lilies, cattail, reeds, irises and egg-pods.

In second place are trees: bird cherry, hazel, elm and willow. Oak and alder are rarely present in the diet; these trees are commonly used for buildings.

Interesting! A river beaver eats an impressive amount of food per day, which is about 20% of the mass of the animal itself!

The river beaver has large teeth and a powerful bite, thanks to which it can easily cope with hard food.

The main menu consists of a small number of tree species. He switches to a new diet gradually, allowing the body to adapt to it.

In autumn, the beaver prepares supplies for the winter. He brings wood fodder to his house, which he puts in water. Thus, it is possible to preserve the nutritional qualities of "products" until February itself.

One family has about 65 cubic meters of reserves, and so that the food does not freeze into the ice, the beaver lays it below the water level, usually under overhanging banks.

Behavior

Beavers can live alone, but more often they form families with 3-5 cubs. The territory inhabited by one family, as a rule, is passed down from generation to generation and is a small reservoir and its coastal zone.

Beavers do not move more than 200 m from the water, and the length of the occupied area will depend on the amount of food

If the place is rich in vegetation, then there family territories may touch or even intersect. The boundaries are always marked with a beaver spray, which is applied to mounds built of clay, mud and branches.

Since beavers look quite impressive, they have enough power to break thin ice with their bodies in the spring.

The animal floats to the surface and inspects the territory. If the dam, built last year, crumbled, then in its place, the construction of a new one begins.

In autumn, the river beaver is especially active in gathering supplies. But sometimes the stored food is not enough and the animal has to make winter sorties.

This process takes a lot of effort, since the body and paws of these mammals are not adapted for traveling in the snow.

But for survival, such walks are necessary.

Beavers are nocturnal and twilight. During the summer, the animals come out of their burrows at nightfall and work until sunrise.

In autumn, labor activity increases due to the increase in night, and in winter it decreases and is transferred to daylight hours.

It is quite difficult to take a photo of a beaver in the cold season, since during this period they are very rarely shown on the surface. And if the air temperature drops to -20 ° C, then the animal remains in the house and does not go out under any circumstances.

reproduction

The river beaver creates a family for life. The female dominates, she brings offspring once a year. After the mating season, which lasts from the second half of January until the end of February, mating takes place, and under the ice.

The duration of pregnancy is about 106 days. During this period, the female is actively preparing for childbirth - laying dried grass and wood shavings.

Cubs appear in the spring - in April or in May. In one brood, there can be from 1 to 6 heirs. Baby beavers look like smaller versions of their parents.

• The look of the cubs is touching - their body is well pubescent and one baby weighs up to 500 g.

Offspring are born semi-sighted and with sharp teeth

• Mom begins to teach swimming to babies on the second day of their life - she literally pushes them into the underwater corridor.
• In the fourth week, the cubs get used to eating vegetation - the basis of their diet during this period is soft stems and foliage. Parents themselves bring them food, and, since babies must gain about a kilogram of weight every month, newly-made mom and dad practically do not know rest in the spring.

In summer, vegetation is abundant, so beavers do not experience a lack of food.

• Up to two years, the cubs are constantly near their mother, upon reaching this age they gradually leave their home and settle down. They go in search of a partner and a free territory where they can equip their own home. During this period, many young beavers die because they do not have time to build a dam and make underwater burrows.

Relationships with people

Beavers build their dams, and humans build theirs. Each has different goals, so the relationship between people and these animals can be called confrontation. Man, erecting his structure, often destroys the houses built by beavers.

Beavers do exactly the same - transforming the water and coastal area according to their way of life, breaking, built by people

But at the same time, there can be no talk of fighting on equal terms in this case. Beavers have beautiful thick fur, which looks quite attractive, and is valued like a fur coat or. As a result, people exterminate these animals.

The greed of people leads to a rapid decrease in the number of these mammals.

The beaver stream is also of great value, which is used to make the fur waterproof - products made from the skins of these animals are not afraid of either rain or snow. A special secret is used in the manufacture of perfumes and medicines.

On a note! The stream of beavers contains a special substance, which is an analogue of aspirin and is highly effective for headaches and migraines!

The extraction of beaver fur caused a large-scale conflict between England and France, which was one of the reasons for the development of the Seven Years' War, which occurred in 1756-1763.

The struggle for the right to possess the vast territories of the New World, where at that time there was a habitat for beavers, became very bloody.

However, the outcome of this war did not bring any benefit to either side - England, being the winner, did not take advantage of the conquered areas, since they were very far from their native coast.

France, on the other hand, was struck and suffered significant losses during the war years, also because the perfume industry had been in decline for a long time.

For many centuries, in the eyes of man, beavers looked like prey - a source of profit. As a result, numerous colonies of these animals were exterminated, and their range has undergone significant changes.

Today, these mammals are under protection and still continue to oppose humans. Some build, others break. And vice versa.

Beaver: Tireless Dam Builder

Beaver (photo): Tireless dam builder

Beavers ( castor) is the only modern genus of animals of the Beaver family, the order Rodents, the class Mammals.

The sea or Kamchatka beaver is a sea otter (sea otter), and the marsh beaver is a nutria. They have no connection with the Bobrov family.

International scientific name: castor Linnaeus, 1820

Synonyms:

• fiber Dumeril, 1806
• Mamcastorus Herrera, 1899

Why does the animal have such a name?

The word "beaver" has probably existed for as many centuries as the Russian language. Words related to Old Russian beaver, found in many languages ​​of the world. Lithuanians have a beaver - bebras, the Germans - Biber, the British - beaver. Linguists believe that the original meaning of his name was "brown, brown beast." Latin genus name castor has ancient Greek roots: κάστωρ - "beaver", κάστον - "wood".

Which is correct - beaver or beaver?

An interesting fact: the sources of the mid-twentieth century indicate that the word "beaver" should have denoted the animal itself, and the word "beaver" - its fur. However, in colloquial language they are synonyms.

Beaver (beaver): description and photo. What does the animal look like?

After the South American capybaras, beavers are the largest representatives of the rodent order. The body length of adults ranges from 80 to 130 cm with growth at the withers up to 35 cm. Their tail varies from 25 cm to 37 cm. The average weight of an adult beaver is 20-30 kg, while some old fat males can weigh up to 45.5 kg.

The sexual dimorphism of mammals is poorly developed and outwardly expressed only in size: females are slightly larger than males.

The body structure of the beaver is ideally adapted to a semi-aquatic lifestyle. Head in animals it is large, flattened from above, with a narrow muzzle, expanding towards the cheekbones. The neck is shortened, thick, without noticeable interception passes into the body.

Eyes beavers are small, covered with transparent flashing films, the third eyelid, protecting them from damage by floating debris. Using such a cover, the beaver can swim under water with open eyes and see well.

Rodents have well-developed sensitive hairs (vibrissae). They are located above the lips, above the eyes, and between the eye and nose.

beaver lips fleshy and very mobile, externally covered with hair. The upper lip is bifurcated and both halves wrap around the huge arched incisors protruding forward. Behind the incisors, both halves of the upper lip meet, pressing against the lower lip. This closure forms a water barrier. Thanks to this structure, the beaver can gnaw on a tree under water without the risk of choking.

Beaver has 20 total teeth:

• 2 incisors in the upper and lower jaw;
• 16 indigenous;
• there are no fangs, in their place there are large diastemas.

Diastemas are gaps or gaps that separate two adjacent teeth.

Four incisors protrude from the front - two from above and two from below. They grow throughout life and are constantly sharpened as they wear out. The incisors are orange, the upper ones are 20-25 mm long, the lower ones are 35-40 mm long, about 8-10 mm wide.

Beaver's ears hardly noticeable, they are small, short, covered with fur, but at the same time the beast hears perfectly. Even the quietest sound, for example, flying by at night, makes the cautious animal stop working and listen for a long time.

Under water, the ear holes are closed with the help of muscles designed for this. In addition, the thick fluffy hair inside the auricle acts as a waterproof layer, aided by the air trapped between the hairs. The beaver's nostrils also have special circular obturator muscles, which close tightly at the moment of diving.

Approximately a quarter of the length of the beast is a wide paddle-shaped tail, which serves as their rudder under water and support on land. Thanks to the tail, at the first glance at the beaver, it can be easily distinguished from other mammals.

Its flattened blade is located in a horizontal plane, the size is 0.3 m in length and 0.1-0.13 m in width. At the base, the tail is almost round, overgrown with fur, and then it is covered with a kind of "scale" - large horny hexagonal shields, between which sparse stiff hairs grow. A longitudinal "keel" runs along the midline of the upper surface of the tail. The beaver's tail is also a signaling device and a thermoregulatory organ.

Beavers have a short, baggy, clumsy and thick body on four short legs. Forelimbs have 5 fingers, of which the first is much shorter than the others, the third finger is longer than the others. Between the 2nd, 3rd and 4th fingers there is a poorly developed swimming membrane. The fingers are armed with very dense, thick, flattened, slightly curved gray-brown claws. The forelimbs are used for walking, and beavers also use them to dig the ground, carry building material, hold branches and other food while eating.

beaver fur consists of hard outer and guide hairs, as well as thick soft undercoat (underfur). When a beaver dives, the guard hairs are pressed against the undercoat by water pressure so tightly that the air trapped between them is not forced out. As soon as the animal goes to land and shakes itself, its fur becomes almost dry.

The beaver constantly takes care of the condition of his fur coat, combs it for a long time, lubricates it with an oily liquid. The older the beaver, the thicker its hairline, the density of the fur also depends on the season: in winter, the fur is 2-2.5 times thicker. In different individuals, there are from 12 to 23 thousand hairs per 1 cm2 of skin. Guard hairs are 70 mm long, guides are 40 mm long, and down hairs are up to 25 mm.

The main color of the beaver's coat is brown with different shades, from light, almost sandy to black-brown, some animals are pure white (albinos) or black (melanists). Beaver fur is very wearable, well dressed, beautiful, and is considered one of the most valuable types of furs.

Beavers are excellent swimmers, reaching speeds of up to 10 km/h in water. When swimming, the mammal pushes off with its wide hind legs, and holds the front paws clenched into fists, removing any obstacles on the way with them.

Having dived, the beaver may not appear on the surface for up to 15 minutes, swimming up to 700 meters during this time. For approximately the same period of time, a seal submerges under water. So the beaver is an outstanding underwater swimmer.

For a long time it was believed that adult beavers did not make sounds, but it is now established that this is not the case. Animals are able to "talk" in the low frequency range. So, the beaver scares away the enemy with a loud trumpet sound, accompanied by hissing and grumbling, similar to the combination “fzssh”. In general, their hissing is an expression of unfriendliness, displeasure.

During courtship, beavers groan, then their sounds become similar to “yyy” or “ooo” pronounced into the nose. Their call or request also sounds, for example, the call of a cub by its mother, a cry when they are frightened or confused, find themselves in an unfamiliar place and cannot find their way to the house. Sometimes they whine like puppies. And, of course, the most famous "beaver" sound is a loud slap of the tail on the water. So the animal warns relatives about the danger.

Beaver cubs make more high-pitched, plaintive crying sounds than adults. They call their mother, especially if they are cold, and also scream when they meet other beavers. The voice of a one-year-old Canadian beaver baby sounds in the range of 0.36-0.45 kHz, by two or three years it shifts to 0.25-0.31 kHz, and for a beaver over four years old, the sound range is 0.16-0.18 kHz.

What do beavers eat in nature?

Beavers are strict vegetarians. In nature, they only eat tree bark or plant shoots. Contrary to popular belief, beavers do not eat fish.

The length of the beaver's intestines exceeds the length of its body by 12 times. A well-developed blind section of the intestine, populated by microorganisms, contributes to the digestion of roughage. In addition, the sinus gland is located in the pyloric part of its stomach, which begins to function immediately, as soon as the grown beaver begins to feed on its own. It also helps break down plant fiber. In addition to representatives of this genus, only the koala and wombat can boast of having a sinus gland. An acidic environment is created in the stomach, which helps the animal to digest even wood, which makes up a significant part of its diet in winter.

In summer, the animal feeds on young shoots of trees and bark. The beaver eats poplar, willow, as well. Less important for him: elm, bird cherry, linden, hazel, and, as a rule, he does not eat alder at all, but he uses it for buildings. But the beaver eats acorns with pleasure.

The rodent eats wood reluctantly. In summer, it cuts down large trees, only to get to their crowns, because very few branches are located within the reach of the animal. In summer, the beaver's diet consists mainly of herbaceous plants: reed, cattail, water lilies, irises and others.

In autumn, it moves to the bark and branches of deciduous trees, but also eats needles and bark of conifers, in particular, spruce and fir. Also in the autumn period, the beaver prepares stocks of wood fodder for the winter. They are stored in water, this kind of preservation allows you to preserve the nutritional properties of the "winter preparations" of household animals for a long time. Moreover, beavers melt their very large food reserves below the water level, so they do not freeze into ice and are available all winter. Beavers can cook up to 70 cubic meters of feed per family, because the weight of an animal's one-day ration should be one fifth of its own weight, that is, an average of 3-5 kg.

In general, beavers eat up to 200 species of different plants, but a specific population eats several of them, because in order to switch to a new type of food, it is necessary to adapt the intestines to a new diet.

Where do beavers live?

Beavers live on the continents of North America and Eurasia. They exist on the Scandinavian Peninsula (there are especially many of them in Finland), they inhabit the basins of the Vistula, Elbe and lower Rhone rivers.

Common river beavers are distributed in the forest and forest-steppe zone of Russia - from the Murmansk region in the north to the Arkhangelsk region in the south and from the western borders to the Baikal region and Mongolia. And in Primorye and Kamchatka, Canadian beavers are found, which appeared independently in the middle of the twentieth century in the Leningrad region and Karelia. They penetrated from Finland in the 70s. were introduced in the Amur basin and Kamchatka. But Siberia and the Far East are not a continuous habitat for the beaver. The animals live separately in the Kemerovo region, Altai Territory, in the upper reaches of the Yenisei, in the Tomsk, Kurgan, Omsk regions, in the Khabarovsk Territory. River beavers are also found in Northwest China and Mongolia.

The Canadian beaver is native to North America. There he lives in Alaska, in Canada, in the USA almost everywhere, excluding Florida, California and Nevada. Found in northern Mexico. In terms of numbers, the Canadian beaver has far outstripped the European one - today the number of its individuals is more than 15 million, they even talk about the "invasion of Canadian beavers" in Europe and Asia.

In general, the beaver is unpretentious, it is found both in the Arctic and in the subtropics. If the animals are not disturbed, they can live next to people, practically in the village. The main thing is to have a reservoir and plants suitable for food.

The number of beavers in the world

In the historical past, these rodents were found almost everywhere in Europe and Asia, but by the beginning of the 20th century, due to intensive hunting for beaver for meat, fur and “beaver stream”, they were exterminated in most of the former range. So, the Canadian beaver was knocked out almost completely, especially in the eastern United States. About 1000-1200 animals survived in Europe and Asia - several relict populations in Russia, France, Germany, Mongolia, China, Ukraine, Norway and Belarus.

At present, thanks to the work on the reintroduction and resettlement of these animals, which has been actively carried out since the first half of the 20th century, the range of the beaver has expanded, and the number of animals has increased. According to data from 2015, only in Russia there are 700 thousand individuals. West Siberian subspecies of the common beaver Castor fiber pohlei listed on the IUCN Red List.

How do beavers live?

Beavers lead a sedentary lifestyle. They willingly settle on the banks of slowly flowing rivers, ponds and lakes, quarries and irrigation canals. In summer, they are active at dusk, leaving their homes at sunset, and work until early morning. In autumn, during the period of stockpiling food for the winter, the working day of beavers is 10 or even 12 hours. Beavers winter here, they do not hibernate. In winter, their activity shifts to daylight hours, although they almost never show up on the surface, and at frosts below 20 ° C, they do not leave their homes at all. Animals get to food reserves by using voids under the ice or by making tunnels under the snow. They probably know how to gnaw holes in the ice. In the presence of a non-freezing polynya on the site, the life of beavers proceeds more actively.

On land, the beaver is clumsy and slow, waddling, relying on short front and longer hind legs. But if he notices danger, he rushes at a gallop to the saving water.

Beavers are very clean. Their dwellings, as well as the channels through which they deliver their timber supplies, are free from both food residues and excrement.

Animals communicate with the help of sounds, special odorous marks, and in case of danger they loudly hit the water with their tail. This is an alarm signal, according to which all relatives hide under water.

Beavers live both alone and in families of up to 8 individuals. The beaver family consists of a parental couple and children born in the last two years. Animals are monogamous, and their parent pairs are long-lived. Hierarchy relations in the colony are formed according to the age and sex principle, the adult female dominates.

Animals rarely fight, only in dense populations some males are marked with scars on their tails - these are the results of fights with strangers for territory. A family plot can be passed down from generation to generation.

Beavers do not move more than 200 m from the coast, and the length of the site along the coastline can be from 300-400 m to 3 km, depending on the abundance of food. If there is a lot of food, their areas may touch and also intersect.

Beaver huts and burrows

At the end of August, couples begin to build new housing. A beaver dwelling is a hole or a hut. For settlement, animals choose the banks of slowly flowing rivers, lakes, ponds, reservoirs. If the coast is steep and high, the animals dig holes with underwater entrances to protect themselves from the invasion of predators. The beaver burrow is a kind of labyrinth with 4-5 entrances, which, together with the beavers, can stretch for tens of meters.

The burrow is carefully arranged inside, the walls and ceiling are leveled by beavers, the floor is tamped down. The living chamber, as a rule, is buried by 1 m, its width is about a meter at a height of 0.4-0.5 m. The floor is certainly raised above the water level by about 20 cm.

If the water level in the river rises, the beavers will scrape the earth from the ceiling and tamp it down, raising the floor. If a strong flood nevertheless floods the dwelling, they will build original hammocks-beds from twigs on the bushes, and dry grass will be dragged for bedding. Sometimes the ceiling of the hole collapses, then instead of it a flooring of brushwood and branches is arranged, which turns the hole into a semi-hut.

In the case when it is impossible to dig a hole, beavers build a hut in the water. As a rule, it is built in a shallow part of the reservoir. The beaver's hut has a conical shape and rather large dimensions - up to 2.5 m in height and up to 12 m in diameter, which means that its age is tens of years. Often it is much smaller - 1.5 m high and about 3 m in diameter. However, the largest hut rises only 1-3 m above the water. As in the hole, the entrance to the hut is located under water. When building this type of dwelling, beavers bring clay soil, using it as a foundation, install several large logs, build walls and a roof of brushwood, fastening it with clay and silt, and carefully coat the walls.

A hole is left in the roof of the hut for air to enter. The living platform inside is located above the water level. From the inside, the dwelling is being improved - beavers bite the branches sticking out of the walls, caulk the cracks with moss and cover them with silt. With the onset of cold weather, the building is insulated by applying an additional layer of clay. This allows you to maintain a positive temperature inside the hut even in severe frost, so that in winter steam swirls over it, because warm air comes out through a hole in the roof.

Why and how do beavers build dams?

The family of beavers builds their dwellings in order to protect themselves from land-based predators. But this does not relieve the animals from the need to go ashore in search of food. To insure themselves against possible problems, mammals dig feeding channels. They help animals get from water to food without going to land. And so that in the summer, due to a decrease in the water level, the entrances are not exposed, beavers build dams on rivers and canals. In addition to raising the water level, the construction of the dam increases the area of ​​the water surface, which means that the habitat of the beaver is expanding. In addition, the shores often become swampy and become inaccessible to enemies - large predators. The beaver dam is also used to store food supplies.

The dam, like the hut, is built by beavers from brushwood, branches and tree trunks, fastened with silt, clay, and stones weighing up to 15-18 kg are also used. Animals skillfully fell trees: for example, it takes no more than 5 minutes for a beaver to cut a trunk with a diameter of up to 7 cm, and a beaver gnaws a tree with a diameter of 40 cm all night.

A fallen tree can serve as a supporting frame for the dam, and in its absence, the beavers first stick the trunks vertically into the bottom, and then, having strengthened the gaps between the logs with the help of branches, use all the same silt, clay and stones. If the branches in the dam take root, this contributes to the strengthening of the building.

The average "dam" is built 2-3 weeks, has a length of about 30 m, a height of 2 m and a width of 5-6 m at the base to 1 m at the crest. The dam built by beavers is very strong. A person can walk freely on it. As a result of the activity of beavers, the area turns into the so-called "beaver landscape" - the forest is flooded, the paths turn into canals.

Record holders for construction - Canadian beavers - build dams up to 1 km or more. So, in the USA in the state of New Hampshire, a dam 1.2 km long was recorded.

Having built a dam, beavers keep it in working order by regulating the water level. Having noticed with the help of a sensitive ear that the sound of the current has changed, and therefore, the dam has broken its integrity, the beavers immediately begin to repair. An experiment is known when a tape recorder was left on near the dam, reproducing the sound of flowing water. Hearing him, the animals immediately covered up the "leakage" with clay!

Types of beavers, names and photos

The beaver genus includes 2 modern relic species: the Canadian beaver and the Common beaver.

• common beaver, river beaver, or Eurasian river beaver ( Castor fiber)

This species includes the largest beavers, their body size reaches 1.3 m with a height of up to 35 cm, average weight up to 30-32 kg, tail length 25-37 cm, width - 10-13 cm, ear length - 3- 3.5 cm. It differs from the Canadian beaver in a longer and relatively narrow tail, a small auricle, and elongated nasal bones. Fur color varies from light chestnut to almost black. River beaver feeds on plants.

Common beavers live in Belarus, China, France, Germany, Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, Mongolia, Norway. In Russia, the river beaver inhabits the entire European part of the country, lives in separate groups in Siberia and the Far East.

• Canadian beaver (Castor canadensis)

It differs from the common beaver in a less elongated body, broad chest, short head with larger dark-colored ears and closely spaced, bulging eyes. The tail is wide: its width is much more than half the length. The body length of the animal is 80-120 cm, tail 25-50 cm, weight from 11 to 30 kg. Fur - from yellow-brown to almost black, most often it is reddish-brown. The undercoat is dense, dark gray in color. The Canadian beaver has a longer intestine, so it can eat coarser food than the common beaver.

The beaver inhabits most of Canada, Alaska and the mainland of the United States, except for Florida, Nevada and most of California, in the south it occurs to the northern part of Mexico. Acclimatized in Poland, Austria, Germany, Finland, Russia and the Korean Peninsula. In Russia, it is in Karelia, in the Leningrad region. For the purpose of acclimatization, it was brought to the Khabarovsk Territory, to Kamchatka and Sakhalin.

The lifestyle of the Canadian beaver is generally similar to that of the common beaver, but there are differences. So, the Canadian beaver settles in holes much less often, preferring huts. The dams he built may be much larger than those of his close relative.