Beaver
Born in May or June, 2-8 kits averaging about a .5 kg in size are born in a den made of logs and mud in a lake or river or in the bank of a stream or river.
The kits are able to walk and swim very shortly after birth, often within one day. Beavers live in colonies of 6-12 individuals in lakes and/or streams. They keep very busy building lodges and damming creeks and rivers to make ponds deep enough to support their aquatic lifestyle.
Their powerful legs are well adapted for swimming as their feet have webbed toes. Their large flat tails aid in underwater navigation acting as a rudder as well as making a dandy perch when sitting on shore. When alarmed, the beaver will loudly smack his tail on the water surface to warn other beavers of danger, just before he dives under the water to safety.
Beavers are North America’s largest rodents weighing in at 14-30 kg in weight and 64-76 cm or longer in length.
A beaver feeds almost entirely on aquatic plants, bark and green twigs. Aspen is their favourite but they also like willow and birch. The beaver is known to cut down very large trees by chewing the wood away with his very sharp and large incisor teeth.
The scientific name for a beaver is Castor canadensis.
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