Critter Class

Beavers Happy Beaver by Stevehdc

December 5, 2011

MVK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X0y8hg4s-w

Comment: Yea! Leave it to Beavers!!

Comment: I LOVE Beavers. So cute.

Comment: I like that video. It was closed captioned for the hearing impaired. HEEEEEE HEEEEE

MVK: YAHOOOOOO

MVK: The beaver is North America's largest rodent. Adult beavers normally weigh 40 to 50 pounds, but exceptionally large animals may weigh up to 80 pounds. They range in length from 35 to 50 inches, including the tail, which normally is about 10 inches long. Beavers have short legs, strong digging claws on the front feet, and large, powerful, webbed hind feet used for swimming. The broad, scaly, paddle-like tail is used as a rudder when the beaver swims, and also helps steady the beaver when it stands on its hind feet. Although beavers communicate principally by using whines, grunts, hisses, and a variety of nasal sounds, they will slap the surface of the water with the tail as a warning to alert other beavers of potential danger. The tail also acts as a storage organ for accumulated fat to be used as a reserve energy source during the wintertime. Per Virginia Cooperative Extension - Va Tech

MVK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXwNE7x_WVk&feature=related

Comment: The beaver appears to have the same face as the porcupine. Are they related? Thanks.

Comment: Hi MVK! I don't think I'd want to meet up with a 90 pound beaver! Wow!

Critter Class – Beavers 1 12/5/2011 MVK: Beavers are known for their natural trait of building dams on rivers and streams, and building their homes (known as "lodges") in the resulting pond. Beavers also build canals to float build materials that are difficult to haul over land.[2] They use powerful front teeth to cut trees and other plants that they use both for building and for food. In the absence of existing ponds, beavers must construct dams before building their lodges. First they place vertical poles, then fill between the poles with a crisscross of horizontally placed branches. They fill in the gaps between the branches with a combination of weeds and mud until the dam impounds sufficient water to surround the lodge. Per Wikipedia

Animal Diveristy Web

MVK: They are known for their alarm signal: when startled or frightened, a swimming beaver will rapidly dive while forcefully slapping the water with its broad tail, audible over great distances above and below water. This serves as a warning to beavers in the area. Once a beaver has sounded the alarm, nearby beavers will dive and may not reemerge for some time. Beavers are slow on land, but are good swimmers, and can stay under water for as long as 15 minutes. Per Wikipedia

MVK: Beavers are herbivores, and prefer the wood of quaking aspen, cottonwood, willow, alder, birch, maple and cherry trees. They also eat sedges, pondweed, and water lilies.[3]

Beavers do not hibernate, but store sticks and logs in a pile in their ponds, eating the underbark. Some of the pile is generally above water and accumulates snow in the winter. This insulation of snow often keeps the water from freezing in and around the food pile, providing a location where beavers can breathe when outside their lodge. Per Wikipedia

Critter Class – Beavers 2 12/5/2011

Stump chewed by beaver

Comment: So, what do we need to know about Beavers???

MVK: Both beaver testicles and castoreum, a bitter-tasting secretion with a slightly fetid odor contained in the castor sacs of male or female beaver, have been articles of trade for use in traditional medicine. Yupik (Eskimo) medicine used dried beaver testicles like willow bark to relieve pain. Dried beaver testicles were also used as effective contraception.[47] Beaver testicles were exported from Levant (a region centered on Lebanon and Israel) from the tenth to nineteenth century.[48] Claudius Aelianus comically described beavers chewing off their testicles to preserve themselves from hunters, which is not possible because the beaver's testicles are inside its body. European beavers (Castor fiber) were eventually hunted nearly to extinction in part for the production of castoreum, which was used as an analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and antipyretic. Castoreum was described in the 1911 British Pharmaceutical Codex for use in dysmenorrhea and hysterical conditions (i.e. pertaining to the womb), for raising blood pressure and increasing cardiac output. The activity of castoreum has been credited to the accumulation of salicin from willow trees in the beaver's diet, which is transformed to salicylic acid and has an action very similar to aspirin.[49] Castoreum continues to be used in perfume production.

Much of the early European exploration and trade of Canada was based on the quest for beaver.[50] The most valuable part of the beaver is its inner fur whose many minute barbs make it excellent for felting, especially for hats. In Canada a 'made beaver' or castor gras that an Indian had worn or slept on was more valuable than a fresh skin since this tended to wear off the outer guard hairs.

Comment: Hi MVK...hope you had a wonderful Monday..Hope you are still happy,happy, happy!!Beaver, was gonna ask if it was in the playtypus family, ? same kinda tails

Critter Class – Beavers 3 12/5/2011 MVK: American beavers are rodents, a subgroup of mammals that includes woodchucks, chipmunks, pocket gophers, squirrels and prairie dogs. The closest living relatives to beavers and other rodents are the lagomorphs, a group that includes hares, rabbits and pikas Per animals.about.com

MVK: Lagomorphs: small four-legged herbivorous vertebrates (about 60 species) with dense fur, a short or absent tail and three pairs of incisors. Per Webster

Comment: Wahooo Beavers - love the way they chew. Good evening MVK and All..what a good night we are in for!

MVK: Family life

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Beaver_2.jpg

A beaver pair The basic social units of beaver social organization are families consisting of an adult male and adult female in a monogamous pair and their kits and yearlings.[42] Beaver families can have as many as ten members in addition to the monogamous pair. Groups this size or close to this size build more lodges to live in while smaller families usually need only one.[42] However, large families in the northern hemisphere have been recorded living in one lodge. Beaver pairs mate for life; however, if a beaver's mate dies, it will partner with another one. Extra-pair copulations also occur.[42] In addition to being monogamous, both the male and female take part in raising offspring. They also both mark and defend the territory and build and repair the dam and lodge.[42] When young are born, they spend their first month in the lodge and their mother is the primary caretaker while their father maintains the territory. In the time after they leave the lodge for the first time, yearlings will help their parents build food caches in the fall and repair dams and lodges. Still, adults do the majority of the work and young beavers help their parents for reasons based on natural selection rather than kin selection. They are dependent on them for food and for learning life skills.[42] Young beavers spend most of their time playing but also copy their parents' behavior. However while copying behavior helps imprint life skills in young beavers it is not necessarily immediately beneficial for parents as the young beaver do not perform the tasks as well as the parents.[42]

Critter Class – Beavers 4 12/5/2011 Older offspring, which are around two years old, may also live in families and help their parents. In addition to helping build food caches and repairing the dam, two-year olds will also help in feeding, grooming and guarding younger offspring.[42] While these helping two- year olds helps increase chance of survival for younger offspring, they are not essential for the family and two-year olds only stay and help their families if there is a shortage of resources in times of food shortage, high population density, or drought.[42] When beavers leave their natal territories, they usually do not settle far.[43] Beavers can recognize their kin by detecting differences in anal gland secretion composition using their keen sense of smell.[44] Related beavers share more features in their anal gland secretion profile than unrelated beavers.[44] Being able to recognize kin is important for beaver social behavior and it causes more tolerant behavior among neighboring beavers

Per Wikipedia

Comment: I guess humans aren't the only ones who can store accumulated fat in their posterior region for a reserve energy source :-)

MVK: The habitat of the beaver is the riparian zone, inclusive of stream bed. The actions of beavers for hundreds of thousands of years[not specific enough to verify] in the Northern Hemisphere have kept these watery systems healthy and in good repair, although a human observing all the downed trees might think that the beavers were doing just the opposite. The beaver works as a keystone species in an ecosystem by creating wetlands that are used by many other species. Next to humans, no other extant animal appears to do more to shape its landscape.[16] Beavers fell trees for several reasons. They fell large mature trees, usually in strategic locations, to form the basis of a dam, but European beavers tend to use small diameter (<10 cm) trees for this purpose. Beavers fell small trees, especially young second-growth trees, for food. Broadleaved trees re-grow as a coppice, providing easy-to-reach stems and leaves for food in subsequent years. Ponds created by beavers can also kill some tree species by drowning but this creates standing dead wood, which is very important for a wide range of animals and plants

Per Wikipedia

Comment: MVK what do beavers eat?? And why do they go in the water?? And how many babies do they have?? And all that other goody stuff?? LOL

MVK: They eat plants. They build lodges and live in them. They go in the water cuz they were meant to Beaver reproduction and social behavior In north America the female adult beaver will come into estrus from November to March. This is dependent on north-south latitudes with beavers in colder climates breeding

Critter Class – Beavers 5 12/5/2011 January to March and the warmer southern beavers November to December. With a one time 10 to 12 hour estrus period the beaver may come into estrus again two weeks later if the female beaver is not fertilized. The female is sexually active after 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 years old. The norther latitudes breeding is later and happens into the third winter season. Beavers in south latitudes may breed before 1 1/2 years. Newborn kits are born between February to June and weigh 1/2 to 1 1/2 pounds (230 to 680 g) each and about 5 inches (12 cm) long. They are covered in fur and have a small slightly curved tail. Their eyes are partially open and within an hour the kits begin nurse feeding. The average size litter is 3 to 4 young and its possible for beavers to have as many as 9 kits.

By the time kits are yearlings 70 to 80 percent die from disease or predators. The mother beaver will produce milk for 2 to 3 months. The yearlings will be eating solid food from 1 month onwards. Kits would have started nibbling leafy branches brought in to the lodge by the male beaver, then they start to forage for themselves, always watching and mimicking their elders. The kits learn to swim within 24 hours even though they stay in the lodge until two months old they will of swam in the escape hole water. Yearling beaver are about half their adult weight 20 - 25 pounds. The parents will have spent much valved time rearing their offspring most likely this is because to survive beavers need to learn many life skills. For this to happen the beaver has very high social behavior skills that evolved over time, this knits the family closer using various ways of communication. Most common is the whine. Kits use whining to get attention for feeding mostly and other social times like grooming and playing.

Tail slapping by the beaver is an alarm warning to other members in the area that predators or some kind of danger is close by. Tail slapping is followed with a warning dive completed in one movement then coming back to the surface to view the danger. This action is brought on by a careful use of other senses. The smell and keen hearing weigh up a situation to a point the beaver discomfort level sends out a message of tail slapping that can be heard above and below the water. The use of scent mounds leaves messages for any beaver that may enter the territory. By leaving an odor the beavers use these aromas for communicating who and what is within the area, including discriminating between the sexes. Beavers share in helping each other to carry out work on lodges, dams and food caching. They show an excellent capacity in getting along living so close to each other in a confined space. Through winter they avoid serious fights, making the young the center of attention. Beavers have evolved a high order of social behavior. If there is a dispute beavers stand up in front of each other in shallow water and start a shoving or wrestling match using the forepaws they push and go should to shoulder until the winner holds his ground and the loser is pushed into deeper water. After the dispute beavers show no sign of submissiveness seen in wolf packs and other mammals. Per Animal Trial

Comment: I think maybe related to the woodchucks??:):)I wear glasses with progressive bifocals..

Critter Class – Beavers 6 12/5/2011 MVK: I wear progressives trifocals - for computer use. LOL I could not find their relationship to each other - I did find that beavers will eat the wood and woodchucks eat greens. Beavers live in water and woodchucks burrow in the ground. However, the woodchuck has been called a land beaver.

Comment: Here's our "Awwwww baby" video :0) http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=clpgffj3sUw&feature=fvwp

Comment: That is really interesting. They winter in cold areas, so hard to believe they survive. Lots of adapting.

MVK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrHRPbedhSE

Comment: They're pretty smart little guys, aren't they?

Comment: One other question: Do they stay married to the same beaver all their lives??

MVK: Yes they do. However if one dies - they will find another mate.

MVK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF8vQSQen2Q&feature=endscreen&NR=1

Comment: I just had this picture cross my mind - beaver working on a tree near his lodge wearing a yellow construction workers helmet. The engineers of the critter world.

Comment: Wildlife rehabilitators find beavers to be gentle, reasoning beings who enjoy playing practical jokes.

Comment: Here's my contribution to class tonight....♬♬♬ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoVyrV8f7P8&feature=related.

MVK: and for our members of EN across the pond http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIYPCg66boQ&feature=related

Critter Class – Beavers 7 12/5/2011 Comment: Good evening all. MVK, I'm delighted with your subject matter this night. Beaver are fascinating creatures. Have had a number of them in my home area building lodges and dams, with the latter having to have been taken down my town highway as the water would come over the road. Doesn't take them long to take down a sapling or even a tree. Very interesting chips of wood and markings on the trunks left. Thanks much for sharing. Might this mean you "got em"?

Comment: Beavers are more than intriguing animals with flat tails and lustrous fur. American Indians called the beaver the "sacred center" of the land because this species creates such rich, watery habitat for other mammals, fish, turtles, frogs, birds and ducks. We now know that beaver damming provides essential natural services for people too. Per BeaversWetandWildlife,org

Comment: who'd ever of thought that there was so much to beaver testicles..WOW!! and its all good....learn something new everyday, especially when I'm on this site!!

Comment: Interesting...the beaver and porcupine are related...they are rodents along with mice and squirrels. Wonder if Congo would trade a few of her squirrels for a big ol' beaver in her backyard...LOL

Comment: Happy Monday everyone! MVK, I think beavers are so cute!

Comment: The baby beavers sound just like human baby gurgling sounds.....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p57YqaD_eek&feature=related

Comment: Hi, MVK! I used to be able to walk on a nearby bike path, to a bridge over a crrek. I would watch a Beaver family. It was fun to watch them, and even though I was standing above them on a bridge, and quiet, they would sense I was there. Then, Slap! went a tail, and they'd disappear under water. Occasionally, I would see one on land, and they are quite large. The young'uns are cute. I don't see them anymore. They moved on, and authorities decided that the creek bed needed to be cleaned out. Now, there is no wildlife there at all. I also used to see birds, and frogs, but now there is nothing moving. I don't walk there anymore, because it is depressing to see.

Comment: Howdy all you lovely people. The beaver looked out the door as the flood carried away part of his lodge. His neighbor looked over and said "Dam it'

Critter Class – Beavers 8 12/5/2011 Comment: I just LOVE IT when animals mate for life, and both parents help raise the young. ♥♥

Comment: I have a lot of stored peanutbutter stored in my posteria LOL

Comment: I've definitely got some extra "storage" in the posterior.....Now if I only had the webbed feet, tail, and teeth to match....LOL

Comment: Beavers will eat fish IF it is already dead...but they won't hunt it themselves.

Comment: Good evening MVK and CN. I am so glad to hear that they have a small curved tail at birth. I was a little worried for mom and that big flat tail!!

MVK: I worry about those teeth for the first three months. LOL

Comment: Here's video of a beaver I saw this fall when I was kayaking. It slapped it's tail behind me and I about jumped out of my kayak. But of course I got pics and video. https://picasaweb.google.com/106076466575367436243/BeaversOnSalamonieReservior# 5660549460634074386

Comment: Boy, they can do SO much damage, too.

Comment: The incisors on beavers can grow as much as 4 feet per year! Beaver teeth are so strong that they are able to chew through large tree trunks. per wildernessclassroom.com

Comment: Hi there, MVK: Hope you've had a great day today. Beavers.....that's an interesting subject. I'm surprised at how smart they are. Thanks for doing these classes for us. I really look forward to them.

Comment: I have always liked beavers, so industrious and clever. What kind of predators do they have?

Comment: My word..,,.what a variety of uses. And beavers chewing their body parts on themselves? ugh

Critter Class – Beavers 9 12/5/2011 Comment: They ARE Geniuses! Such workaholics, too!

Comment: I think my cat jumped on the laptop and cut off my last message. The baby beavers are so cute! I wonder if they imprint on humans like some other wildlife?

Comment: Good evenng MVK and everyone! Glad Monday is over. How long is the gestation time for beavers?

MVK: Hi Violet - 107 days. Nice to see you tonight!

Comment: I am so sad that beavers only have 20 to 30% survival rate. It looks like the babies have a lot to learn.

Comment: What cute babies! I wonder if they are as likely to imprint on human as some other wildlife.

MVK: I wondered too when I saw that video. I believe they rehab differently than WCV does.

Comment: Thank you, Teach!! Have the beavers chewed on a log cabin??

MVK: I am not sure Shelly. Most log cabins today are treated - maybe they helps.

Comment: Where do beavers live? Beavers live in ponds, lakes, rivers, marshes, and streams all across the United States. However, they are not found in Florida and parts of Nevada and California. per wildernessclassroom.com

Comment: Here's my contribution to class. So, MVK? Do beavers really do that with their paws? GOOD EVENING! http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=michelin+tires+beaver&view=detail&mid=AEC1 6597BF76A109929AAEC16597BF76A109929A&first=0&FORM=LKVR

Comment: Thanks MVK. I was fishing in a beaver pond in CO, and I was amazed at how level the dam was. They sure are wonderful engineers.

Critter Class – Beavers 10 12/5/2011 Comment: We have a bike/walking path beside our Black River in my town. I've noticed a couple trees have been felled by beaver's teeth. One tree was left standing only by a little pedestal in the middle, but finally toppled over. The chips they leave are large.

MVK: When we built our archery range in a park - two ponds with a little waterway separated the front and back. We built a bridge so if needed rescue vehicles could cross over. Well the beavers loved it and built their dam by piling their sticks against the bridge, over and over and over again. Everytime the park rangers would tear it down, they would build it back. Funny thing was - the "guys" in the group thought it was just debris floating against the bridge, til I showed them the cedar trees with all the shavings and tooth marks.

Comment: In case we didn't get enough of baby beavers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQV6wwaMNGY

MVK: I liked the noises they made in the BBC video - so cute.

Comment: Hi MVK.... here is a great article on how beavers affect the ecology of an area over time... http://www.ecology.info/beaver-ecology.htm

Comment: Am I the only person who wonders about who the first person was to find out that beavers testicles were edible? And all the rest of that stuff?

MVK: I guess there were lots of bored folks a long time ago.

Comment: Predators, Dangers, and Defense: Humans are the main enemies for beavers everywhere. In the north, wolves are the main predator for the beaver. When a beaver is on land looking for food it can be attacked by animals like: coyotes, lynx, bobcats, mountain lions,wolverines, bears, and sometimes stray dogs. Beavers are hard for an animal to kill because they can dodge into one of their plunge holes. Sometimes a beaver will bite its enemy with its sharp teeth and drag their enemy to the water to drown. per library.thinkquest.org

Comment: I've never seen a beaver in the wild. I saw a muskrat in Winsconsin and at first thought it was a beaver. Are they related?

MVK: They are all rodents.

Critter Class – Beavers 11 12/5/2011

Comment: We had a beaver on our pond that he kept damming up; we destroyed the dam; he rebuilt; this went on for a bit. Then our son found a long straight limb from a tree that the beaver had shaved down to the wood and he took it for his camp to hang his lantern on. We called the authorities to see if they would come and remove him/her and they said they are overrun with them and do whatever we like with them, but he said probably it would move on once pestered too much or can't find a mate. Thankfully, he did because we couldn't have killed him. Our pond was back to normal again.

Comment: This is for EGS ;0) The prehistoric beavers were 7 feet, 6 inches long and lived in North America. per library.thinkquest.org

MVK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=kvRvrRJL_fc&feature=endscreen

Comment: Have beavers ever been endangered?

MVK: I don't think so - they are even known to be over abundant in some areas.

Comment: MVK, have beavers ever bitten people or are they scared of people""

MVK: Like most animals - probably not the ones to go after a person but if cornered or to protect their young - I imagine they would bite.

Comment: Wikipedia..said beavers will eat snakes. I was surprised how much room there was on the inside...I always thought the dams were sticks piled on top of each other, more like a wall than an igloo style. Very interesting. One big family room to share.....

MVK: and they even have a chimney - that is something.

Critter Class – Beavers 12 12/5/2011