Beavers
Description
- Beavers eat the leaves, inner bark, and twigs of aspen (a favorite food), alder, birch, cottonwood, willow, and other deciduous trees. Beavers also eat shrubs, ferns, aquatic plants, grasses, and crops, including corn and beans. Coniferous trees, such as fir and pine, are eaten occasionally; more often, beavers will girdle and kill these trees to encourage the growth of preferred food plants, or use them as dam building material. Beavers have large, sharp, upper and lower incisors, which are used to cut trees and peel bark while eating. The incisors grow their entire lives but are worn down by grinding them together, tree cutting, and feeding. (Fig.1) Fermentation by special intestinal microorganisms allows beavers to digest 30 percent of the cellulose they ingest. When the surface of the water is frozen, beavers eat bark and stems from a food “cache” (a safe storage place) they have anchored to the bottom of the waterway for winter use. They also swim out under the ice and retrieve the thick roots and stems of aquatic plants, such as pond lilies and cattails.
Diet
- beaver's diet is made up of tree bark and cambium - cambium is the soft tissue that grows under the bark of a tree.
Size
- Up to 36 inches in length, Up to 71 pounds in weight
Habitat
- Beavers eat the leaves, inner bark, and twigs of aspen (a favorite food), alder, birch, cottonwood, willow, and other deciduous trees. Beavers also eat shrubs, ferns, aquatic plants, grasses, and crops, including corn and beans. Coniferous trees, such as fir and pine, are eaten occasionally; more often, beavers will girdle and kill these trees to encourage the growth of preferred food plants, or use them as dam building material. Beavers have large, sharp, upper and lower incisors, which are used to cut trees and peel bark while eating. The incisors grow their entire lives but are worn down by grinding them together, tree cutting, and feeding. (Fig.1) Fermentation by special intestinal microorganisms allows beavers to digest 30 percent of the cellulose they ingest. When the surface of the water is frozen, beavers eat bark and stems from a food “cache” (a safe storage place) they have anchored to the bottom of the waterway for winter use. They also swim out under the ice and retrieve the thick roots and stems of aquatic plants, such as pond lilies and cattails.
Range
- The beaver can be found throughout North America, except for most of Florida, the desert Southwest, central and southern Mexico, and the northern most parts of Alaska and Canada.
Lifespan
- Beavers live on average 10-15 years in the wild.
Life, History, Reproduction & More
- Although beavers are important contributors to natural aquatic systems, their dam-building can cause severe flooding, that damages roadway, and buildings. Beavers can be infected with the bacterial disease tularemia. Tularemia is fatal to animals and is transmitted to them by ticks, biting flies, and via contaminated water. Animals with this disease may be sluggish, unable to run when disturbed or appear tame. Tularemia may be transmitted to humans if they drink contaminated water, eat undercooked, infected meat, or allow an open cut to contact an infected animal. The most common source of tularemia for humans is to be cut or nicked by a knife when skinning or gutting an infected animal. Humans can also get this disease via a tick bite, a biting fly, ingestion of contaminated water, or by inhaling dust from soil contaminated with the bacteria. A human who contracts tularemia commonly has a high temperature, headache, body ache, nausea, and sweats. A mild case may be confused with the flu and ignored. Humans can be easily treated with antibiotics. Beavers are among the few animals that regularly defecate in water, and their droppings (like those of humans and other mammals) may cause a flu-like infection when contaminated water is ingested. The technical name for this illness is “giardiasis.” It is more commonly referred to as “giardia”—derived from giardia, the single-cell protozoan that causes the disease. Another popular term, “beaver fever,” may be a misnomer. It has never been demonstrated that the type of giardia beavers carry causes giardiasis in humans.
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