Conservation Status: Least Concern
- They typically weight from 24 to 70.7 pounds and are 29 to 35 inches long. Their tail adds another 8 to 14 inches to its length.
- They have webbed hind feet and large, flat, nearly hairless tail.
- They have two separate layers of coats. The top portion of the coat is coarse and thick, offering defensive benefits.
Lifespan: Average lifespan for a beaver in the wild is about 24 years.
Range and Habitat:
- They live in or around freshwater ponds like lakes, rivers, marshes, and swamps except in the desert areas of the Southwest United States.
- Beaver colonies create dams of wood and mud to provide still, deep water in order to protect against predators such as wolves, coyotes, bears, or bald eagles.
- They float materials to their homes.
- Their homes are called lodges and they are made from mud and branches.
- Lodges are positioned in the middle of the pond, with a hidden entrance (from the water), which prevents predators to even get in touch with them.
- Beavers are semi-aquatic herbivores. This means they obtain some food in water and some on land.
- Most of their diet is made up of tree bark and cambium. Cambium is the soft tissue that grows under the bark of a tree.
- They especially like willow, maple, birch, aspen, cottonwood, beech, poplar, and elder trees.
- They also eat vegetation like roots, buds, and other water plants.
- Famously busy, they turn their talents to reengineering the landscape around them.
- Beavers are very social and live in groups called colonies.
- Beavers are monogamous and mate for life or until a partner dies.
- Beavers are mainly nocturnal, doing their work and hunting at night.
- Beavers are the second largest rodent in the world after the capybara.
- Beavers are second only to humans in their ability to manipulate and change their environment.
- Beavers can stay under water for 15 minutes without coming to the surface. They have transparent eyelids that act as goggles so they can see as they swim.
Finn was born May 1, 2010 and daughter Shiloh on July 16, 2015 at Zoo Montana in Billings, Montana.