American Beaver
I have always thought that beavers look cute with their cute little 'beaver teeth'. Beyond that I didn't really know anything about them till about a day ago. I saw this wonderful documentary on beavers which was so interesting and informative.
After watching that documentary my admiration and 'respect' for this little animal has indeed increased manifold.
What a hardworking creature it is! Truly amazing!
How much of work it does with its little sharp clawed hands(?)!! I was even more amazed to know that beavers bring down small trees! Whew, those teeth must be something!
And how well the family cooperates to bring about building the dam and the nest. Apparently, beavers may pair for life. The female gives birth every spring and the older siblings live on with the parents till they are about two years of age. After that period they go out into the world to search for a mate and a nice spot to build their nest.
It was particularly interesting to watch how one established family was seeking to bring reinforcements for their home. Since the beaver would be vulnerable to bring logs by land (and of course it would be easier to float the logs rather than drag them), they cleverly built dams, changed the course of the lake and built canals to where the trees were! "The trees won't come to the river but the river can go to the trees"! And the female (queen she is called, I think) beautifully stocks up for the winter. She stores the twigs/branches in such a place near the nest that they would be cool but not freeze up in the tough Wisconsin winter!
What a creation! I want to shake its beautiful, clawed, hardworking, talented and efficient hands, and say "Well done!!"
No comments:
Post a Comment