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Kid's Learning Zone   »   Virtual Zoo   »   Beaver

Beavers are one of the semi-aquatic (mammals that spend much of their lives in the water) mammals and can generally be seen in the area of North America, northern Europe, and northern Asia. Beaver modify their environment for their own purposes more than any other animal except man.

They are also known for their "danger signal": when startled or frightened, a swimming beaver will rapidly dive while forcefully slapping the water with its broad tail. This creates a loud 'slap', audible over large distances above and below water. This noise serves as a warning to other beavers in the area. Once a beaver has made this danger signal, all nearby beavers will dive and may not reemerge for some time.

Beavers are strictly plants eating animals and they do not migrate from one place to another place. They eat the inner bark of the trees during the winter season. During the growing season, they eat a variety of vegetation including various aquatic plants and the leaves and small twigs of many different kinds of trees.

Beavers continue to grow throughout life. Adult specimens weighing over 25 kg (55 lb) are not uncommon. Females are as large as or larger than males of the same age, which is uncommon among mammals.

Beaver dams are created both as a protection against predators, such as coyotes, wolves and bears, and to provide easy access to food during winter. Beavers always work at night and are prolific builders, carrying mud and stones with their fore-paws and timber between their teeth. Because of this, destroying a beaver dam without removing the beavers is difficult, especially if the dam is downstream of an active lodge. Beavers can rebuild such primary dams overnight, though they may not defend secondary dams as vigorously.

The largest dam build by them was 2,140 feet long, 14 feet high and 23 feet thick at the base. With their human-like family life and highly developed engineering skills, beavers have always fascinated people.

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See Beaver Coloring pages