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1. ARE BEAVERS NOCTURNAL SKIN
2. ARE BEAVERS NOCTURNAL CRACK

They have a fondness for apples and have been known to cut down apple trees rather than wait for the apples to fall.

ARE BEAVERS NOCTURNAL SKIN

They eat the skin from limbs and twigs, and then stockpile the peeled sticks for use as building materials.

Summer diets include a variety of pondweeds, grasses, leaves, mushrooms, fruits and berries. In winter they survive on a diet of tree bark, which is about the only food available, and which they easily digest. After their second winter, sub-adult beavers are forced to leave the colony to seek out territories of their own, making room for their parents’ next litter.īeavers are vegetarians and will eat plants of every kind. They remain with the family for two years, often helping tend to their younger siblings. Kits weigh about a pound at birth and gain over 15 pounds during their first year. Litters averaging two to four well-developed kits are born in May or June. In the Finger Lakes region, beavers mate annually in February. Like most wild animals that have been antagonized by man over time, the beaver has evolved into a chiefly nocturnal creature. Its thick lustrous fur, which nearly brought about its extermination, keeps the beaver warm and dry, even underwater, where it can remain for 10 minutes or more. In the water, above or below the surface, the beaver is a graceful and powerful swimmer.

ARE BEAVERS NOCTURNAL CRACK

Should a beaver become alarmed, slapping the water with its tail produces a rifle-like crack that warns other beavers of the impending threat. It serves as a rudder while swimming and as a prop when felling trees. The 12-inch tail is leathery with a scale-like texture. Its beady eyes, paddle-shaped tail and oversized hind legs only add to its ungainly appearance. On land it lumbers along with a somewhat awkward gait. An adult can range from 25 to 60 pounds and average 3 feet in length. An old saying suggests, “Where there are water, poplars, and willows, there are probably beavers.”īeavers are pudgy, rather dumpy-looking animals, not unlike something Disney might have designed – big teeth and all. Although beavers will use most any tree, alders, poplars and willows are preferred. And because they can close their lips behind their incisors, beavers can chew underwater. By cutting down trees, beavers acquire a food source – bark and skin from limbs and branches – and building materials for their dams and lodges. Uncontrolled growth of the teeth could lead to the animal’s eventual demise from starvation. But more important, gnawing keeps the length of the incisors in check. Continual growth and constant gnawing keep the teeth chisel-sharp, enabling beavers to cut down even the biggest of trees. These large, curved, orange-colored teeth are positioned so that the top pair overlaps the bottom pair at a slightly different angle. Working together, a family of beavers can accomplish remarkable things.īeavers have to stay busy – there isn’t a lot of choice – because their trademark front teeth, or incisors, never stop growing. Its cooperative nature and willingness to undertake seemingly impossible tasks are qualities not seen anywhere else in the animal world. Its untiring work habits and its “waste not – want not” philosophy long ago inspired the phrase “busy as a beaver.” Its daily routine – indeed, its entire lifetime – is spent providing food and shelter for itself and its family. The beaver – New York’s official state mammal – is an industrious critter and a model of wildlife efficiency. Wherever this largest of North American rodents takes up residence, significant habitat changes soon follow, sometimes causing serious conflicts and consequences. And like some environmental changes made by man, the beaver’s alterations can affect other animals, plants, and people enough to require an environmental impact statement. With the exception of man, the beaver is the only creature with the ability to dramatically change its surroundings to suit its own particular needs.