Beaver
(Castor canadensis)

The beaver is similar in general shape to a porcupine. However, beavers are covered in glossy, dark brown, dense fur and have a large, wide, scaly, flattened tail, webbed hind feet for swimming and prominent orange incisors (front teeth). The lips can actually be closed behind the teeth so that the beaver can chew under water without getting water or mud in its mouth. The tail is used as a rudder when swimming, slapping on the water as an alarm, helping stabilize the animal when it is cutting trees and it is a fat reserve. These animals live in family groups in areas with plenty of fresh water and trees so that they can build their dams, ponds and lodges, and they have enough fresh aquatic vegetation and bark of deciduous trees and shrubs for food. Beavers build their lodges of mud, stones and branches and they can be very large. Once the pile is complete, the beavers will chew and dig out two or more underwater entrances and one or more chambers that are above water and dry. In areas where a stream is too large to be dammed, beavers will build their dens in the stream banks. It is estimated that a single beaver needs more than 200 trees and that a family of five requires an acre of poplars (or other favored tree species) per year for food. In the fall, they will cut branches for winter food and store them close to the lodge. They are a very important fur-bearing species for trappers.

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