Why do beavers build dams?
In most cases, they do it every few years, which is actually excellent for both these animals and the environment. Berries – Beavers won’t happily eat most berry plants from wetland and blackberry canes. Unlike other rodents, beavers are picky eaters with a specific taste for food. They never eat dirt and soil or steal garbage from someone’s trash can.
That said, there are rare occasions when beavers pose a threat to the local fish population. Beavers also get small amounts of water from eating fruit, leaves, or anything that has recently been rained on. Gnawing on wet wood may also supply them with small fractions of their daily water intake. Beavers have dexterous front feet that can hold objects, much as a person would, although they do not have opposable thumbs.
As you might imagine, this could cause problems if a colony of beavers lives near a farm or orchard, especially during periods of drought. Beavers don’t limit their taste buds to leaves and bark though. According to the National Park Service, they also enjoy a wide variety of softer plants such as clover, grass, water lily tubers, ferns, ragweed, cattails, and even some mushrooms. Aside from aspen and poplar, though, beavers will eat leaves and twigs off of many trees, especially willow, black cherry, cottonwood, birch, and alder. These produce scent for communication and territory marking, and oil to waterproof their fur, respectively.
Precisely, they only consume some tree parts, preferably the cambium, the soft inner bark. Beavers are nocturnal animals and usually look for food at night. In any case, they spend most of the day eating and building dams. The dams are not the homes of beavers; they build lodges to live in, give birth, raise young and store food. These cleverly engineered lodges can be over 6 feet high and as wide as almost 40 feet! The lodge contains an entrance underwater that the beavers can access quickly, and climb through their passages to various rooms.
Other plants will provide their energy levels and maintain their body weight. At one point beavers were greatly threatened due to trapping. After wildlife laws were established, beavers and their habitats became more protected, and their numbers rebounded. After extinction in Scotland about 400 years ago, this beaver type was introduced from Norway and formally recognized as a native species. Interestingly, this animal was widely distributed in Great Britain in the past, but none was found in Ireland.
Among other areas, he studies the reintroduction of Beavers in the southwest of England, particularly how the animals modify the landscape. His work has been published in journals including the Journal of Applied Ecology, Restoration Ecology and Ecological Solutions And Evidence. Over time, beavers have evolved to have a handy comb on their back foot. On their right side, one of their claws has a cleft or split in the middle, which comes especially useful when grooming.