Beavers are mammals. Canadian beaver: size, food, habitat and description
The common beaver is a large and semi-aquatic animal that belongs to the order Rodents. The second name of the beaver is " river beaver"This creature surprises people with its skills and abilities: the creature is capable of excellent construction, and it is also a good owner and family partner. The beaver ranks second in size among Rodents from all over the world. To get to know this creature better, you can look at the photos that are scattered on the Internet.
The main features of the appearance of the animal
Before we begin to characterize the appearance of the animal, it is worth noting one fact. People most often, when they say the words beaver and beaver, mean the same meaning. But it’s worth remembering that these are completely two different words and they are used in different meanings. So, the beaver is itself Living being, and the beaver is the fur of the animal:
Beavers can camouflage well with their discreet fur colors. Thus, the fur color of a representative of beavers has a light chestnut or dark brown tint, in some cases it can be black. The rodent's tail and paws are painted black. The beaver's tail has special wen, as well as specialized glands.
So, a bad-smelling substance that is formed from the tail glands common beaver, experts call it a beaver stream. The secret of wen has all the information about the rodent, carries information about his age, as well as gender. The main mark that warns other individuals about the border of the beaver's territory is the smell of the beaver stream, which smells completely differently for each individual individual. Life expectancy of the common beaver natural conditions is about 15 years.
Photos of beavers
Where do beavers live?
These creatures prefer to live in Europe (Scandinavian countries), in France (in the lower reaches of the Rhone River), in Germany (on the Elbe River), and also in Poland (along the banks of the Vistula River). Rodents also live in forest or forest-steppe regions of the European part of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.
On the territory of Russia, the common beaver can be found in the Northern Trans-Urals. In separate groups beavers live in the upper reaches of the Yenisei River, in Kuzbass ( Kemerovo region), in Khabarovsk Territory, in the Tomsk region, Kamchatka and the Baikal region. In addition, the animal can easily be found in Mongolia or Northwestern China.
Rodents live with a special device that helps them lead a semi-aquatic lifestyle. Underwater, the creature's ear openings and nostrils close tightly. Also, special nictitating membranes are shifted to the eyes, thanks to which the beaver can clearly look around under water. The animal's mouth is formed in such a way that excess water could not hit it while the animal was diligently swimming under the surface of the water. The function of controlling the coordination of movement under water is performed by the tail of the animal.
When choosing a place for further residence, beavers prefer to occupy the territories of the banks of calm, quiet rivers, lakes, reservoirs, as well as various ponds. Rodents do not settle in places fast current rivers or where rivers are excessively wide. Beavers also avoid bodies of water, which freeze to the very bottom in winter. For common beavers it is important that there are many soft and soft trees nearby hardwood, as well as the presence of aquatic, herbaceous and shrubby grass in the bank areas and on the territory of the river itself.
Beavers are excellent swimmers and divers. With the help of its uniquely designed lungs, the animal can stay under water for about 15 minutes and during this time swim a distance of 750 meters. It is for this reason that rodents feel more comfortable underwater compared to the surface of the earth.
What do beavers eat in the wild?
Beavers are predominantly vegetarian in their diet and belong to plant type mammals. Beavers rely on tree shoots and bark to feed on them. Beavers love to eat poplar, aspen, birch or willow. The beavers are also not averse to eating herbaceous plants: reeds, cattails, water lilies, iris, this list can be continued for a very long time.
What do beavers eat? Big number trees soft breed these animals need for food and living. Bird cherry, elm, linden, hazel and other trees are important for the diet of rodents. Trees such as oak and alder are not usually consumed by animals, but well used in their buildings and structures. But the rodent will never refuse to eat acorns. Strong and large teeth easily cope with tree food. Most often, rodents use only a few tree species located nearby as food.
IN summer season the amount of grass food for the animal increases comparatively. IN autumn period All beavers begin carefully preparing woody food for the winter. Throughout the winter, beavers consume mainly food stored in advance. Beavers place them in water so that the food retains useful vitamins and microelements throughout the winter.
The amount of wood food reserves for the entire family of rodents can be very large. So, in order to prevent food from freezing into ice, animals usually placed it is below the water level. Even when the reservoir is completely covered with ice, food remains freely available for the beavers, so the family will definitely not have to starve.
Giving birth and raising babies
Beavers are considered monogamous animals. If they once connect with the opposite sex, then they remain with their soulmate throughout their lives. The female is usually dominant in the family. By the age of 2 years, beavers become capable of fully reproducing. Ordinary beavers can produce offspring only once a year. Offensive mating season occurs in mid-January and continues until the very end of February. The gestation period for babies lasts 3.5 months.
In April-May, from 2 to 6 beaver cubs are born. Beaver babies emerge sighted and covered with fur; the body weight of the newborn is 0.5 kg. A few days after birth, babies can already swim in the water. Adults take good and careful care of their babies.
By 1 month of life, small cubs are already able to consume plant foods, but the female continues to feed them milk until they reach 3 months. Adults remain close to their family for another 2 years, after which they calmly move out and begin an independent life.
The benefits of beavers for humans
- The main advantage of beavers is their residence in rivers, as this has positive influence on ecological system. Particularly great benefits come from the construction of beaver dams. Small animals prefer to settle in these places, as well as waterfowl, which carry eggs on their legs, resulting in fish appearing in the reservoir. Beavers also influence water purification, because their dams retain silt and reduce the turbidity of the water.
- This rodent friendly enough. But at the same time it has some enemies - brown bears, foxes and wolves. The greatest danger to animals is man himself. That is why, to preserve the population of this animal, effective measures were introduced to protect individuals and restore their numbers.
Body length up to 100 cm, weight up to 24 kg. The hind legs have a swimming membrane between all the toes. The tail is flattened from top to bottom, covered with horny scales. Fur color ranges from light brown to black.
- Habitat biotope. Forest ponds. Slow-flowing small and medium-sized rivers, ponds, oxbow lakes.
- What does it eat? Aquatic and aquatic plants, branches and bark of aspen, willow, poplar.
- Ecology of the species. Nocturnal activity. Lives in huts made of twigs, branches, silt and earth and in burrows up to several tens of meters long, the exits are located under water. Constructs dams and canals. Lives in groups of up to 6 individuals. In the fall, he prepares food by cutting down trees and storing branches and rhizomes near his home. Does not hibernate. There is one litter per year - up to seven cubs.
You can soon find out that beavers have appeared on the reservoir. Let this active beast show itself in some way, capable of erecting dams, digging long canals, felling thick trees and building high huts. But these grandiose structures do not appear immediately. The first thing you notice are pieces of branches washed up on the shore with gnawed bark and traces of wide teeth on the wood, as well as fresh gnaws on the trunks. The beaver is forced to gnaw trees both for food and for its construction work.
Beavers feed on the bark and thin branches of trees they fell. Where there are willows and aspens, they give preference to these species; in their absence, they gnaw birch, alder, bird cherry and other trees and shrubs. On the bank of the river Valdayki in the Novgorod region. I once found a resinous tree stump, on which deep and fresh gnaws of wood could be seen (apparently, resin coniferous trees in some cases it is required by the beaver body). It has been observed that a beaver fells aspen trees 5-7 cm thick in a couple of minutes. It can handle a tree with a diameter of 20 cm in one night. But it is not uncommon to see trees more than 30 cm thick, felled by these rodents. Even strong oak wood cannot resist their powerful cutters. In the Voronezh nature reserve, I was able to see with my own eyes a thick oak tree destroyed by beavers.
Fresh gnaws on the trunks and piles of shavings that turn white near the gnawed trees are clearly visible even from afar. Thick trunk The beaver gnaws in a circle, and while the tree has not yet fallen, the shape of the gnaw resembles an hourglass. Fallen trees leave stumps with a cone-shaped top. The beaver cuts thin stems at an angle. While going about its usual business, it stands on its hind legs, resting its front legs on the trunk, and the bites are usually located at a height of 30-50 cm from the surface of the ground. On wood and fresh chips The deep grooves left by the teeth of this animal are clearly visible. Their width is about 7 mm. Stumps that have darkened with time, but have retained their cone-shaped shape, and old gnaws on the trunks remain noticeable even several years after the beavers leave this body of water.
IN summer time Beavers feed on succulent herbaceous plants. If you notice a path that has been crushed in the grass leading from the river and walk along it, it can lead to thickets of some lush herbs. Taking a closer look at these herbs, you can see that some of them were cut at the height of a beaver, about 40-50 cm. The total length of the beaver reaches 1 m, the tail is about 30 long and 15 cm wide, and the body weight is up to 30 kg. The beaver is the largest rodent we encounter. But when he stands on his hind legs and chews, he usually does not stretch out to his full length, but stands slightly hunched over.
The range of herbs eaten by beavers is very wide, but they especially often eat meadowsweet, stinging nettle and dead nettle, thistle, watchwort, impatience, iris, cattail, reed, and horse sorrel. They also love aquatic plants - water lily, egg capsule, arrowhead.
Enough high bank beavers dig a hole and live in it. The entrance to this dwelling is always under water and not visible from the outside. IN low places Dome-shaped huts up to 3 m high and up to 10 m wide at the base are built from gnawed branches and thin trunks chewed into pieces. The thickness of the walls of this durable structure reaches 0.5 m. Inside the hut, above the water level, there is a living chamber, from which 1-2 passages go directly under the water. This is where a beaver family lives throughout the year, consisting of a pair of adults, this year’s offspring and last year’s grown-up beaver cubs. Only in the 3rd year do young beavers reach maturity and leave their home.
These animals mate in winter, and after 105-107 days the female brings 1-5, most often 2-3, cubs. Beaver cubs are born covered with thick fur and sighted, and the next day after birth they can already float on the water, although they are not yet able to dive.
For supporting high level beavers build dams below their settlement. Depending on the terrain and the width of the river, these structures sometimes reach 200 m in length and up to 7 m in width. Constructed from trunks and branches felled and brought here by water, caulked with clay, pieces of turf and stones, the dams are so strong that many of them can be used by a person to easily cross from one bank to the other. If the dam is damaged, the animals drag in new branches and clay and quickly close the gap. In summer, the dams are densely overgrown with sedge and other moisture-loving grasses and appear as a wide green stripe stretching from bank to bank. Yellow flowers iris, burgundy-red inflorescences of weeping grass and other flowers often decorate beaver dams.
To the sides of the reservoir, beavers often dig long straight channels about 50 cm wide, making their way to feeding areas easier. Along them, animals float tree branches to their huts, preparing food for the winter, and along them they deliver building material to dams being built or repaired. A lot of different traces of activity can be seen near their settlements, but clear paw prints are rarely seen. Although it would seem so large and heavy beast, constantly crawling ashore, must leave traces of its paws in many places. But where the soil is strong, there are no good prints left, and on muddy soil the footprints float, and the beaver himself involuntarily smoothes them out with his flat, wide tail. Despite this, even not very clear beaver tracks are so similar to the tracks of other animals that they are easily recognized.
The lower surface of the beaver's front paw
There are 5 toes on the beaver's front paw, but the 1st toe is short and closely pressed to the 2nd and is not visible on many prints. The claws are quite wide, about 1.5 cm long and 0.5 cm wide. The hind paw is also five-fingered and wide. All fingers from the very tips are interconnected by a thick leathery membrane. Wide, long claws are well developed only on the 3rd, 4th and 5th toes and protrude forward by more than 1.5 cm, and they are 1 cm wide. When moving, the beaver steps on the entire foot, although the main emphasis is still placed on the front part feet, so the heel is not always clearly printed.
The average size of the front paw print of an adult beaver is approximately 8 × 6 cm, the back one is (14-15) x (10-12) cm, but it can be smaller or larger, depending on the age and size of the animal. Occasionally come across large individuals, in which the length of the sole of the hind paw reaches 18 cm. Claw prints on the tracks are often not visible, as are the boundaries of the swimming membrane.
The lower surface of a beaver's hind paw
The beaver moves in short steps, 15-22 cm long. The width of the track is about 16 cm. It can walk some distance on its hind legs. This is what he does, for example, bringing building materials (clay, pieces of turf, stones) to a dam under construction. Sometimes you can see animal droppings on a dry section of the shore or in the water. From numerous particles of wood it light color and resembles a wood-fiber wad swollen in water, known to many hunters, and its size is (3-4) x (2-3) cm.
Beaver dams raise water levels, flooding low-lying areas with trees and shrubs. Some trees cannot withstand flooding and die. Dead trunks of birches and fir trees stick out from the water for a long time, and people sit down to rest on them predator birds, and even woodpeckers fly in to peck at the dry bark. But willows, reeds and other near-water vegetation grow along the shore and on the islands, which creates excellent conditions for waterfowl and some animals. The first to begin nesting near the newly formed lake are mallard ducks and teal. Tufted ducks sometimes settle on the islands, and if there are hollow trees nearby, large mergansers or goldeneyes may nest. Appear here, and sometimes. Hares often visit beaver settlements and gnaw the bark from the trunks and branches of aspens and willows felled by beavers. These places are interesting both for hunters and simply for nature lovers. But it is not easy to move around areas inhabited by beavers along muddy banks studded with sharp stumps, blocked by fallen trees and dug up by deep ditches. Just look, you'll stumble or fall into some hole.
During the day, beavers are seen only occasionally. Animal activity increases towards dusk. If you arrive early and hide on the shore, you can watch for a long time how beavers drag large branches through the water, climb onto dams or come ashore. Sometimes they can swim very close, especially if there is fog over the pond, making the outlines of objects blurry and unclear. Then the animal that suddenly surfaced is very reminiscent of a dark stump of a log swaying on the waves. But then he heard you, loudly struck with his flat tail and immediately disappeared under the water for a long time.
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 insulate their burrows, around them they form something like 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 man.
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
Beavers (Castor), a genus of rodents; includes two types. The European beaver (Castor fiber) is distributed in the forest zone of Eurasia, in the floodplain forests of the forest-steppe and steppe zones. The Canadian beaver (Castor canadiensis) is common in North America, acclimatized in Finland, introduced to Far East (Khabarovsk region, Kamchatka). Both types are very similar. Beaver body length is 80-100 cm, tail 30-35 cm, weight up to 30 kg. The skull is powerful, the facial region is shortened.
Among all rodents, only beavers have a rounded depression on the main occipital bone. Molars are tall, have no roots and grow constantly. The eyes are small with nictitating membranes. The ears are short and wide. When diving, the ear openings and nostrils close. The lip extensions can cover the oral cavity behind the incisors and isolate it from water. The body is squat, with shortened five-fingered limbs, and the hind limbs are much stronger than the front ones. There are swimming membranes between the toes, especially strongly developed on the hind limbs. The claws are strong and flattened. On the second toe of the hind limbs the claw is forked; the beaver combs its fur with it. The tail is paddle-shaped, flattened in the dorsoventral direction. In the middle, along the tail, a horny keel stretches. The flat part of the tail is covered with large scales, between which sparse bristles grow. Hair is present only at the base. The fur is tall, thick, with highly developed fluff, light or dark brown. There is only one moult per year. In the anal area there are paired musk glands that produce a strong-smelling secretion called “beaver stream”. Currently, this secret is used in the perfume industry.
Beavers live in families consisting of parents and their offspring. They settle along the banks of slow-flowing forest rivers, oxbow lakes and lakes, avoiding bodies of water that freeze to the bottom. They swim well, can stay under water for 4–5 minutes and swim 750 m during this time. For beavers, the presence of floodplain forests, coastal and aquatic grass vegetation is important. On a river, a family plot can range from 300–400 m to 3 km in length. The coastal area extends along the river bank for 0.5–3 km.
For housing, animals make holes or huts. Burrows are dug when there are steep banks. The entrance to the burrow is always located under the surface of the water. Huts are built in places where digging holes is impossible - on low, swampy shores or on shallows (they look like a large pile of brushwood, held together by silt, up to 1–3 m high and up to 10 m in diameter). Inside the hut there is a large cavity, the exits of which lead into the water. In winter, the huts maintain a positive temperature, the water does not freeze, and beavers have the opportunity to go into the under-ice layer of the reservoir. In reservoirs with an unstable water level, which, if it declines, could lead to the drainage of exits from burrows or huts, beavers build dams below the settlement from cut tree trunks, branches and brushwood, held together by clay, silt and other material.
With powerful incisors, animals not only easily gnaw branches, but also fell large trees, gnawing them at the base of the trunk. They gnaw off the branches of a fallen tree and divide it into parts. Some of the branches are eaten on the spot, while others are carried down and floated across the water to a dwelling or to the site of construction of a dam (a tree with a diameter of 10–12 cm is felled and cut up by a beaver in one night). Found in Montana beaver dam about 700 m long, and the hut, thanks to annual completion, reaches a height of 13 m.
Beavers are pure vegetarians. In summer they feed on aquatic and coastal grasses, and closer to autumn they begin to switch to branches and bark of trees, since they do not hibernate. In the fall they prepare supplies for the winter. They fell trees, gnawing them at the base. Then they are sunk in water to prevent the supplies from freezing into the ice. The volume of reserves for the winter is 60–70 cubic meters per family. Beavers prefer aspen, poplar, and willow (the bark of these trees is harmless to them). Beavers avoid alder.
Beavers are monogamous. The rut begins in January-February. Mating occurs in the water under the ice. Pregnancy lasts 105-107 days. Before giving birth, the male leaves the home, and the female alone raises 3-5 beaver cubs for 2 months. The cubs are born sighted, covered with fur, and can swim on the third day. At the age of 3-4 weeks they eat green food, but continue to feed on milk for another 2 months. At 3 years old, young beavers become sexually mature and leave the parental area. In nature, beavers live 20-23 years.
Beaver - valuable fur-bearing animal, has always served as an object of hunting. Especially valuable felt for hats was made from beaver fluff (these hats were called castor, based on the Latin name for beavers). As a result of predatory fishing, by the 20th century. beavers in Russia were almost exterminated, in the territory former USSR 800-900 individuals remained in four scattered habitats. Since 1922, beaver hunting has been banned everywhere. In the 1920s, the Voronezh, Berezinsky and Kondo-Sosvinsky nature reserves were created to preserve beavers. At the same time, attempts were made to resettle beavers, and by 1941, 316 animals were resettled. From 1946 to 1970, another 12,071 individuals were resettled. When total number reached 85-90 thousand individuals, it became possible to plan their commercial catch. In Sweden, beaver hunting is legal due to their widespread. The Asian subspecies of the European beaver is protected.
Beavers are one of the most interesting animals on our planet. Self-sharpening incisor teeth help beavers not only cut down trees, but also build homes for themselves and even build dams.
Among the representatives of the rodent order, the beaver ranks second (after the copybara) in body weight, which reaches 32 kg. (sometimes 50 kg.) with a body length of up to 80-100 cm and a tail length of 25-50 cm. prehistoric times(during the Pleistocene era) beavers were much larger, their height reached 2.75 m, and their weight was 350 kg.
Modern beavers are divided into two species: the common beaver, common in Eurasia, and the Canadian beaver, whose natural habitat is North America. Due to the great similarity in appearance and habits between the two populations of beavers, until recently, the Canadian beaver was considered a subspecies of the common beaver, until it became clear that there is still a genetic difference between these species, since the common beaver has 48 chromosomes, while the Canadian one has only 40. In addition, Beavers of two species cannot interbreed.
The beaver has a squat body, five-fingered limbs with strong claws and a wide paddle-shaped tail. Contrary to popular belief, the tail of beavers is not at all a tool for building their homes; it serves as a rudder when swimming. The beaver is a semi-aquatic animal, therefore, much in the appearance of this mammal shows its adaptability to being in water: between the toes there are swimming membranes, especially strongly developed on the front legs, in the eyes of the beaver there are nictitating membranes that allow you to see under water, the ear openings and nostrils close under water, large lungs and liver provide 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. Thick layer subcutaneous fat protects against cold.
Beavers are exclusively 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). In order to obtain bark and shoots, as well as for construction needs, beavers cut down trees, gnawing them at the base. An aspen with a diameter of 5-7 cm is felled by a beaver in 5 minutes, a tree with a diameter of 40 cm is felled and cut up overnight. A beaver is gnawing, having climbed onto hind legs and leaning on the tail. Its jaws act like a saw: to fell a tree, the beaver rests its upper incisors against 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.
Trees chewed by beavers:
Video about the life of beavers, where you can see how beavers gnaw trees:
Beavers live along the banks of slow-flowing rivers, as well as ponds, lakes, and reservoirs. For housing, beavers can dig holes in steep banks with several entrances, each of which is located under water so that they cannot penetrate there land predators. If digging a hole is impossible, beavers build a special dwelling - a hut - right in the water. A beaver lodge is a pile of brushwood held together by silt and clay. The height of the hut can reach up to 3 meters, and the diameter up to 12 meters. Like a hole, a hut is reliable shelter from predators. Inside the hut there are manholes under the water and a platform rising above the water level. The bottom of the hut is lined with bark and herbs. With the onset of the first frost, beavers additionally insulate the hut with new layers of clay. Air penetrates through the ceiling. In cold weather, clouds of steam can be seen above the beaver lodges. At the very cold weather the hut maintains a positive temperature and even if the reservoir is covered with ice, the ice hole under the hut does not freeze, which is very important for beavers, because beavers store food reserves for the winter, prepared in winter, under the overhanging banks directly into the water, from where they then take them when cold weather sets in .
beaver hut
Beavers live alone or in families. Full family consists of 5-8 individuals. The mating season for beavers is in winter. Cubs are born in April-May and can swim within one or two days. 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 2-3 years. In captivity, beavers live up to 35 years, in the wild 10-19 years.
The head of the beaver family marks the boundaries of his territory with the so-called “beaver stream” - special secretions that were previously actively used in medicine, and are now used in the creation of expensive perfumes.
In case of danger, beavers give an alarm signal to their relatives by striking the water with their tail.
To prevent water from flooding the hut during a flood or, conversely, the reservoir suddenly becoming shallow, beavers often build dams. Construction begins with beavers sticking branches and trunks into the bottom, strengthening the gaps with branches and reeds, filling the voids with silt, moss, clay and stones. They often use a tree that has fallen into the river as a supporting frame, gradually covering it on all sides. building material. The longest dam built by beavers was 850 meters long. If a dam starts leaking somewhere more water than necessary, the beavers immediately seal up this place. Thanks to their excellent hearing, beavers accurately determine the place where the water began to flow faster. One day, scientists conducted an experiment: on the shore of a reservoir, a tape recorder was turned on with the recorded sound of flowing water. Despite the fact that the tape recorder was standing on dry land and there was no trace of any flowing water, the beavers’ instinct worked and they immediately covered up the “leak” with mud.
Although beavers may seem like forest pests, beavers' activities actually have beneficial effects on the ecosystem. For example, the number of ducks in reservoirs improved by beavers is on average 75 times greater than in reservoirs without beavers. This is due to the fact that beaver dams and calm water attract shellfish and aquatic insects, which, in turn, attract waterfowl and muskrats. Birds bring fish eggs on their paws and beaver ponds become more fish. Trees felled by beavers serve as food for hares and many ungulates, which gnaw the bark from the trunks and branches. The sap that flows from undermined trees in the spring is loved by butterflies and ants, followed by birds. In addition, dams help purify water, reducing its turbidity, because silt lingers in them.
Beavers have long been hunted because of valuable fur and beaver stream. As a result, at the beginning of the 20th century, many European countries beavers were completely exterminated, and the total number of beavers in Eurasia was only 1,200 individuals. In the 20th century, largely due to active work After the restoration of the beaver population in the Soviet Union, the situation began to gradually improve. In 1922, beaver hunting was banned in the USSR, and in 1923 the Voronezh Beaver Reserve was founded, where ideal conditions for beaver breeding. Bobrov from Voronezh Nature Reserve resettled throughout the USSR, as well as in Poland, China, the GDR and other countries. Currently, the number of beavers in Russia exceeds 340 thousand, almost half are of Voronezh origin. The reserve is still open today, and when you visit it, you can take home photos of beavers (about 300 of them live here) taken with your own hands. In addition to beavers, the reserve has 333 species of vertebrates.
In North America, beavers were also brought to the brink of extinction, but their protection in the USA and Canada began at the end of the 19th century, and now there are 10-15 million beavers on the American continent, which is many times higher than the number of beavers in Eurasia (where there are about 640 of them) thousand according to data for 2003), however, it is much inferior to the time when the fur trade in America was not yet in fashion (at that time there were 100-200 million beavers in America).
Canadian beavers now live far beyond their borders natural habitat. In 1946, the Argentine government imported 25 pairs of Canadian beavers to the archipelago Tierra del Fuego to begin the beaver fur trade in the region. However, beavers, having found themselves in an ecosystem where they had no natural enemies, multiplied so much that they threatened local forests. Currently, 200 thousand beavers live on the archipelago.
In addition to Argentina, Canadian beavers were brought to Sweden and Finland, from where the beavers moved to Northwestern Russia, where they began to compete for territory with Eurasian beavers. The number of Canadian beavers in North-West Russia can reach up to 20 thousand individuals.
In Russian there is a word "beaver", but it is not a synonym for the word "beaver". "Beaver" is an animal, and "beaver" is the fur of a beaver.