Beavers are large rodents on the planet, valued for their fur. Their lifestyle is of great interest, as they are smart, hardworking and enterprising animals. About what beavers eat, how beavers winter, read the article.
Animal Overview
The habitat of beavers is small forest rivers, ponds, swamps, abandoned quarries, canals. The main thing for these animals is not too deep freezing of the reservoir in the winter and not drying out in the summer, as well as the presence of food of plant origin.
A beaver is a squat animal with short legs, which reaches a length of 1 meter. His body is covered with thick fur of a decent length. The thirty-centimeter tail, resembling an oar, is flattened, covered with large scales. It helps the animal swim, perform immersion and maneuverable turns.
The hind legs have membranes, thanks to which the animal feels comfortable in the water. His claws are strong and long. The ears are small, almost invisible on the head. But, despite this, rodents have excellent hearing. Beavers see underwater thanks to reliable protection - a blinking membrane. These animals walk on their hind legs when they carry something with their front legs, branches, for example, or a cub.
Nora
For their living, beavers build huts, half-huts or burrows. Where do beavers winter? If conditions allow, they with their entire family settle in a hole that has access to the water. Rodents dig it on the selected site in the event that the soil is dense and the reservoir has a high shore. Before constructing numerous minks or chambers, they dig passages whose walls are carefully rammed. There are several entrances to the mink and exits from it. In our area, the soil is mostly loose, and the banks are gentle. Therefore, you can often meet the hut, and not the mink.
Hut
How do beavers winter? To do this, they build a hut - an animal dwelling, the appearance of which resembles a Ukrainian hut, or rather - its roof. As a building material, beavers use branches with different trunk diameters, grass, as well as clay mixed with silt. The animal dwelling initially has one large room, the width of which is two meters and the height is one and a half. To get into the hut, build an entrance located below.
The frame of the dwelling consists of large branches. The cracks formed during the construction are filled with grass and small rods. Floors are covered with shavings, which are laid in a dense layer. The walls of the beaver huts inside are very smooth, since they bite off all protruding branches with sharp teeth, and then smear them with clay and silt. This prevents the wind from entering the home. It takes two months to build a strong hut in which the beaver is always reliable and warm even in severe frost.
Half-jacket
This is a type of beaver dwelling, the formation of which is associated with a change in water level. How do beavers winter? In order not to build a new home, they rebuild the holes. When the water level rises, the hole is flooded. To raise the floor level, a rodent scrapes the ground from the ceiling. But he quickly becomes thin. To prevent collapse, the animal strengthens the ceiling with branches, clay.
Why do beavers need a dam?
The water level is never constant. Often in the summer, water bodies dry completely, and during heavy rains, on the contrary, the water rises. This makes life difficult for rodents, and to make it easier, smart animals begin to build a dam so that the water level is constant. The animals build the construction along the river, below their possessions. Its size in length, width and height depends on the width of the reservoir and the current, more precisely, its speed. On average, the length is 15-30 meters, the width is four, the height is two or three. Clever animals build a dam where there is a "foundation": a narrow riverbed, a fallen tree. But over time, this structure is not able to retain water, then the beavers on the sides make extensions. Gradually, the dam grows in size and becomes very strong. The value of such a structure is very great. Thanks to dams, the water level in the river rises, which positively affects the number of fish. Conclusion: beavers are useful animals.
How do beavers get ready for winter?
With the onset of autumn, the whole family gathers together to procure feed for the winter. They work at night until dawn. Since the main food in winter is bark, wood and aspen branches, rodents settle where it grows: along the banks of the rivers. The animals have adapted to fell trees so that they fall with their peak into the water. The animals immediately gnaw the twigs, then “saw” the trunk into small pieces and fuse it to the pantries, which are under water off the coast. One family harvests about 30 cubic meters of wood feed for the winter.
In preparation for winter, the beaver family builds a dam, since in winter animals live mainly under water. Thanks to the dam, the water in the river rises, which will allow the family to move freely. In preparation for the winter period, the beavers are engaged in the construction of side wings on both sides of the dam and in laying a course for ventilation, which goes from the ground on the surface to the dwelling under water. That is why in winter, steam swirls over the rodent's dwelling.
When the cold comes
How do beavers winter? To do this, they have a reliable house, almost inaccessible to forest animals. The fact is that, due to low temperatures, the walls of the hut are cemented and become even stronger, so the enemies simply can’t penetrate the house. Beavers feel comfortable in their home even in severe frosts, since here the temperature remains positive. Water does not freeze in manholes, so beavers, if necessary, can freely go out under the ice of a reservoir. There are cases, but rare, when the hut collapses due to damage that a bear or wolverine can cause. But in this case, the family does not die, since all its members manage to dive into the pond. Beavers can be under water for a quarter of an hour without causing damage to their health. Animals feel the threat, when they approach, they make a sound, notifying their relatives about the trouble, and only then hide under the water. Sound is heard hundreds of meters from the home.
How does a beaver winter in winter?
This is the most difficult time for rodents and other animals. Throughout the cold period, family members are together in the bedroom. How do beavers winter if they live in a pond, river or other body of water? They do not hibernate, spend the winter in a half-drowsy state in a close circle of the family, huddled together. How many beavers winter in one hole? Usually a family consists of a father, mother and children in the amount of 6-8 individuals who were born over two years. The fact is that the offspring lives with their parents until the age of two, and then leaves their home to create their own family. For food pre-stored in advance, they occasionally descend into a storage facility located under water. For a snack, take a few branches and lay down again. If stocks run out, animals feed on rhizomes of plants growing in water in winter.
There are cases that in the warm beaver huts for winter time snakes settle: snakes, vipers. Rodents are hostile towards them; by the forces of the whole family they drive out uninvited "guests" from their home. But they have nothing against muskrats and muskrats, which sometimes settle in their huts for the winter. On their territory, beavers tolerate their presence on certain conditions: winter guests should not interfere with the family, and for this they must build a separate room for themselves.
