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The American Beaver
  Fact File  
 
  • Can live for ten to fifteen years
  • Lives in family groups
  • Is mostly active at night and sleeps during the day
  • Has a round body, brown fur, webbed feet, and a big, flat tail
  • Weighs about 35 pounds (16 kilograms) – the same size as a large dog
 
   
  Map showing the American Beaver is located in Canada and the United States, including Alaska
  The American beaver is found in Canada and the United States, including Alaska.
   
  The American Beaver  
  Habitat

Beavers live in homes called lodges, which they build in the middle of a lake. This is a quiet, safe place away from the beaver's predators, such as wolves, coyotes, bears, and owls.

Before a beaver builds its lodge, it needs to make the lake. To do this, the beaver builds a dam across a river. The dam floods the river and forms a lake. Beavers make their dams from branches, twigs, mud, and stones.

The beaver is now ready to build the lodge. It uses its sharp front teeth to gnaw down trees, and then it builds a large room from sticks, rocks, and grass. The beaver covers the walls with mud to keep the rain from coming in. A beaver enters its lodge through underwater tunnels. These tunnels keep predators from getting inside the lodge.

  Did you know?
    Two beavers can gnaw down a small oak tree in fifteen minutes. A beaver family can cut down three hundred trees in one winter.  

Young beavers, called kits, are born in the spring. Although they can swim soon after they're born, they stay in the lodge with their mother. Kits are too small to swim down the entrance tunnels, and this keeps them from wandering away. When they're six weeks old, the kits are ready to explore the outside world.

  
   
  The American Beaver  
  Feeding
Beavers like eating the bark from aspen trees
 

Beavers eat the bark from trees such as aspens, poplars, and elms. Their favorite food is the bark from willow and maple trees. They strip off the bark using their strong front teeth. In the summer, a beaver also eats leaves, twigs, and seeds.

A beaver spends most of the fall cutting down trees so that it has enough to eat during the winter. It then stores the branches underwater in large piles that float outside the lodge. The cold water keeps their food fresh.
 
 
Special Features
 

A Beavers front teethBeavers can stay underwater for up to fifteen minutes. They close their nose and ears when they dive, and their eyes are protected by a special layer of skin. A beaver also has lips behind its front teeth. This allows it to gnaw branches underwater without swallowing any water. A beaver's front teeth are always growing. They are shaped like a chisel and are very sharp.

A beaver has waterproof fur and a layer of fat to help it stay warm. Beavers are very fast swimmers. They have two large webbed feet to help them swim and a big, flat tail that helps them to steer. A beaver also uses its tail to warn of danger by slapping the pond's surface with it. The whacking sound can be heard by other beavers up to a mile away.

  
 
   
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