Beaver good? Dispelling myths about formidable dam builders

A forest rivulet murmurs in a thick corridor of willows, and around, under the shade of vines, in the thickets of picturesque old women, wild fun reigns. Leaves-plates, white and yellow flowers float along the backwater. Dragonflies hover over the surface. And how many birds have gathered here! For them, the swampy shore is a paradise ... But this is also a kingdom for beavers.

Dominions on the islets

Among the sedges, reeds and willows, on the islands surrounded by canals, heaps of branches and roots, sprinkled with earth and silt, peep through. Their diameter is from 10 to 12 m, height - up to 1-3 m, and thickness at the top - up to 30-40 cm. They can withstand the weight of several people! And impregnable to predators. They are covered with silt and clay from the inside, and even at minus 30 degrees they are so warm that steam comes out through a hole in the ceiling. Where the coast is steep, there are holes (mazes with 4-5 entrances with canopies). The living chamber is a little more than a meter wide, 40-50 cm high, the floor is 20 cm above the water level. When the ceiling is destroyed, a semi-hut is built. In the spring, during the flood, hammocks are arranged on the bushes from branches, twigs, and dry grass.

Beavers are very clean: they clean their homes, clean and comb their fur. Secretions from the sebaceous glands do not allow them to get wet and freeze even in ice water. Borders are marked with a beaver stream, applying it to mounds of mud, silt, branches, along with the secret of wen. It carries information about the owner (gender, age) and, evaporating more slowly, retains the mark for a long time.

The river beaver, like the Canadian beaver, is a semi-aquatic rodent. Although these species are similar, but incompatible, they even have a different number of chromosomes. They live in Eurasia and North America along the banks of streams, rivers, lakes ... They create couples for life. In the family - 5-10 individuals, including the offspring of two years. An ordinary beaver is matriarchy, a Canadian beaver can have a harem of 2-3 females. These rodents mate in the water in winter. In April-May, up to 6 half-blind downy beavers weighing up to 500 g are born. After a few days they already swim, and after 3-4 weeks they try young greens, although they continue to drink MILK for up to 3 months. From birth they know how to build huts and dams. After 2 years, they organize their own colony.

Strict Vegetarians

In the diet of beavers, bark and shoots of willow, aspen, poplar, birch and other trees, except for alder and oak, are used for buildings. They love acorns, algae and up to 300 types of herbs. Beavers need to feed up to 20% of their body weight per day. Trees are felled, rising on their hind legs and sitting on their tail. Moving in a circle, in 5-10 minutes the rodent fells a tree up to 5-7 cm in diameter, cuts it into pieces and floats it along a trench a meter deep and a hundred meters long to the bottom, where there is a supply depot. Sanded stumps and piles of shavings remain in the cutting area.

Only having prepared about 200 trunks, in winter the beavers can rest, going out only for under-ice walks. Although even the most zealous in the courtyard can have an emergency - then you have to carry, close up ...

Beavers swim and dive excellently, holding their breath for 10-15 minutes. And thanks to the transparent eyelids, they are perfectly oriented in the water. In addition, their ears and nose are closed with valves. On land, they are clumsy, but they swim at speeds up to 8-10 km / h, pushing off with webbed hind legs. And the rodent, swimming, compresses its front paws with long claws into fists, pushing interference away from itself. A wide flattened tail with horn shields - a kind of 30-cm steering wheel and oar, a body temperature regulator, a third leg when standing, a lever for transferring branches and an expression of feelings (a slap on the water is an alarm). They also communicate with the help of odorous marks, postures, and whistles.

Both harm and benefit

All family members come out to build a dam. They work without drawings and in the dark, but they do everything honestly, without haste. They build dams below the huts, regulating the water level so that the entrances do not freeze, do not drain. They stick branches and trunks into the bottom, sometimes a tree that has fallen into the river. Strengthen the gaps with branches, reeds, silt, clay, stones weighing up to 15-18 kg. On average, it takes a family about a week to build 10 m, and they can restore the dam overnight!

Although secretive beavers, they are given out by canals, huts ... Where there are a lot of rodents, their dams flood fields, buildings, roads and even cause train wrecks. It seems that these rodents only cause harm? This is not true. They are also beneficial. Mollusks and insects, desmans, muskrats, birds settle in the spill, bringing caviar on their paws. And the fish are breeding. Fallen trees serve as food for hares and ungulates. The sap from the undermined trees attracts butterflies and ants, and the latter - birds. Dams contribute to water purification, reducing its turbidity.

The main enemies of beavers are brown bears, wolves, foxes. And the people who exterminated them for MEAT and fur. It is the most beautiful and durable of all. Went on women's hats and fur coat edges, necklaces. In CANADA, beaver skins even served as money. In the 16th century, they were valued 1.3 times more expensive than sable. In Eastern Europe, beavers were hunted for their fur and jets about a thousand years ago. Ever since the time of King Solomon, this secret has been used for headaches, to create perfumes. Musk retains aroma for a long time, repels water, contains a lot of aspirin.

As a result, by the 20th century, no more than 1,200 beavers remained in the world. Thanks to the ban on hunting, by 1998 their number in Europe and RUSSIA was already estimated at 430,000.

Beavers seem harmless, but they create so many problems! But we are invading their domain. The beaver is a strong animal and can even attack people if they interfere with it. After all, he is the first largest rodent in Europe and the second largest in the world. Only capybaras are larger. So we must learn to live in harmony with this beast, he deserves respect.

Figures and facts

By the beginning of winter, up to 50% of the fat available in their body is deposited in the tail of beavers, while in summer - only 15%.

In nature, the beaver lives 10-17 years, dying under fallen trees. In captivity, they usually live 3 times longer - up to 30-40 years.

Beavers are the only creatures on Earth other than humans that build structures visible from space. Usually the length of their dams reaches 20-30 m. It is wider at the base, narrows with height, reaching a width of 1-2 m on the crest. The record in the construction of dams belongs to Canadian beavers. The 850 m long dam was built in Wood Buffalo Park (Canada). And in the state of New Hampshire, they found a dam 1200 m long; 40 huts were built in the dam.

Images of beavers are on the coats of arms, coins and stamps of different countries of Europe. Cities, localities, settlements, rivers are named after them. And even the variety of cucumbers and the brand of beer. Monuments were erected in Bobruisk, Bobrov (Voronezh region). There is a sculpture of beavers in the Alpine Zoo (Innsbruck, Austria).

Tatyana MOISEEVA,

newspaper.