Wildlife Watching Wednesday: Beavers And Their Dams

By: Tom Berg

Beavers are very recognizable creatures. After all, how many large, brown furry animals do you know that have a really flat, leathery tail? Beavers are actually part of the rodent family, but they are much larger than most rodents. Adult beavers typically weigh 25-50 pounds, which is more than many species of dogs! Some beavers can tip the scales at 65-70 pounds!

Beavers have been called the engineers of the animal world, and that description is pretty accurate. These enterprising mammals are indeed master builders, and they specialize in building dams. They build dams for one purpose, too, and that is to make a cozy and secure home for themselves and their family.

When the beavers dam-up a creek or stream, they raise the water level by three or four feet (depending on the size of the dam) and create a small pond or wetland. Since beavers are semi-aquatic mammals, they are right at home in the water. After the water level is raised, the beavers build a nice secure lodge out of logs, branches and mud out in the middle on the pond. Inside the lodge they are protected from predators and from cold weather in the wintertime.

Beavers are vegetarians, and during the warm weather months they eat a wide variety of leaves, aquatic grass, weeds and plant roots. They also love cattails and water lilies. During the winter, green leaves are hard to find, so their diet shifts to bark from trees and shrubs. Before their pond freezes-over in early winter, they often cut down several nearby small trees and drag them into the water. Then they can access them from under the ice and have plenty of food all winter.

Although beavers can cause problems for humans when they cut down trees and dam-up streams near farms and neighborhoods, beavers are actually very beneficial animals. For thousands of years they have created and maintained wetlands throughout North America, and wetlands are incredibly productive and diverse ecosystems. Without wetlands, many species of birds, mammals and amphibians would have nowhere to live. Wetlands also help protect against flooding.

So if you think about it, beavers are actually our friends!

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