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Beavers

Resource for Grades K-5

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Running Time: 4m 42s
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The beaver is the largest rodent in North America. One of the most notable traits of this species, however, is not its size but its ability to transform its environment to suit itself. Most animals have at least some effect on the environment around them. Spiders weave webs to catch passing insects. Woodpeckers chip cavities in the trunks of trees to build their nests. But few animals (except for humans) have as much of an impact on their environment as the beaver does. In fact, a single family of beavers can in a matter of weeks turn a small, rushing stream into acres of deep, still, interconnected ponds, creating a wetland that would otherwise not exist.

Besides humans, beavers are the only species on earth that know how to construct dams. Scientists often refer to beavers as the engineers of the animal world. But unlike humans, who must be taught how to design and build dams, beavers know instinctively how to interweave sticks to create a strong and durable structure and how to seal a dam with mud to make it impermeable to water. They are born knowing how, just as birds know how to sing songs or build nests without ever having done so.

A beaver's work is critical to the survival of its family. The deep ponds that beaver dams create offer refuge from predators and from the freezing temperatures of winter. As long as a beaver dam is tall enough and the resulting pond deep enough, a family of beavers will have underwater access to food throughout the winter.

Perhaps more importantly, beaver dams and ponds provide habitat that wouldn't otherwise exist for many other species. Ducks, geese, herons, turtles, and frogs are just a few of the species that benefit from the deep and wide waterways that beavers create. Unfortunately, this is where the dam-building accomplishments of beavers and humans diverge. While small ponds constructed by humans can be just as beneficial as a beaver pond, huge dams, including the Hoover Dam pictured in the video, serve more often to flood vital habitat than to create it. Dams as large as this create incredibly deep reservoirs that lack the diversity and richness of the ecosystems created by beavers.

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Discussion Questions

In what ways is the beaver adapted to its environment?

Beaver dams change the landscape by blocking the flow of water and creating large pools behind them. How might this help other plants and animals? How might it harm other plants and animals?

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Transcript

NARRATOR: Have you ever seen a dam? This is the Hoover Dam. It holds back the Colorado River. The water trapped on one side of the dam forms a lake. There is only one animal besides humans that can build a dam...beavers.

In springtime, beavers build their dams. They build them out of logs, branches, stones and mud...across rivers, streams and shallow ponds. The dams hold back running water and in a few weeks, there is a deep new pond.

Once the pond is about three feet deep, beavers build a lodge to live in, constructing a room with underwater doors and tunnels. Inside the lodge, they stay safe from enemies such as otters and people. They snack on water plants and roots along the edges or bottom of the pond. Mostly they eat leaves, twigs and tree bark.

Have you ever been near a pond and heard a loud crack? It was probably a beaver, smacking the water with its wide, flat tail to warn others of danger. Their webbed feet and strong tail make beavers very fast swimmers...but clumsy and slow-moving on land.

Beavers have to come out of the water to groom themselves. They have a special gland that makes oil. They spread the oil over their fur to make them waterproof. Their oily fur keeps them warm and dry.

Beavers are nocturnal. They do most of their work at night. They use their sharp teeth to cut down trees a little at a time, working their way around the tree. Once the tree is down, a beaver often eats some of the leaves, twigs and bark and then cuts and hauls the branches into the water.

In fall, the heavy work of dam repair begins. Beavers fix their dam and build it higher to make the water deeper. If the pond is not deep enough, it could freeze to the bottom and trap the beavers inside their lodge. Once they have finished packing the dam with sticks and sealing it with mud, the beavers are ready for winter.

During the winter, beavers eat the branches and leaves they have gathered near their lodge. They eat the bark, turning the branches like corn on the cob.

Many animals build their own nests, tunnels and other types of homes. But a beaver's dam does more than keep the beaver safe in its lodge.

Beaver dams change the landscape dramatically, just like human dams, creating new habitats for many kinds of plants and animals. Dragonflies, turtles...raccoons, ducks, frogs...otters and heron are just some of the animals that benefit from the ponds beavers create.