A Little Bit More
The Beaver is much more important to the settling of North America than many people realize. The quest for Beaver pelts pushed trappers into new areas all across the continent and helped people explore the North American wilderness. Unfortunately, the heavy trapping pressures exerted on the Beaver population, along with habitat changes, overwhelmed their ability to maintain a stable population and the Beaver became a rare animal.
Today the Beaver is once again reasonably common all across the continent. In fact, they’re so common in some areas that they’ve become a nuisance when their damming construction conflicts with peoples’ interests. Although we all know that they live in lodges, it may come as a surprise to learn that some live in burrows along river and lake banks if building a lodge is not possible.
Beaver (note its flat tail) © John wiessinger
Beavers are most active at night traveling on shore to find suitable plants for food and building material. The aspen is probably their favorite kind of tree for this animal although it will feed on a wide variety of other plants. Beavers (North America’s largest rodent weighing up to 60 pounds) use their larger incisors to gnaw around a tree trunk until the tree falls. They feed on the inner bark of the tree and strip the smaller branches to take back to their dens for food. Beavers feed on the cambium (growing portion of a tree) that lies under the bark. Beavers have an important assortment of bacteria in their gut that allows them to properly digest the large amounts of cellulose in their bodies as food. Without these bacteria, they’d actually starve to death. It should be noted here too that humans have many bacteria in our own intestines that are also essential for proper digestion and assimilation of “people” food.
Activities
Science –Beavers in your area?
Objectives: Use a field guide to identify Beaver’s range
Materials: Current field guide to mammals or internet
The Beaver is an especially widespread mammal in North America. Although found in most of the continent, there are a few areas where there are no Beavers. See if your students can use a field guide or the internet to find out whether Beavers are found in your area.
Of course, Beavers are located in appropriate habitat so be sure students understand that just because Illinois has Beavers, for example, doesn’t necessarily mean they’re living in the city of Chicago – but then again, maybe they are!! See what you can find out.
There is a great deal of history that incorporates the Beaver and the fur trade in early America that you may want to have students research too.
Here’s a nice range map for Beavers if you don’t already have one:
Questions
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