Do you know what do beavers eat? This article unleashes some of the significant beaver diet facts that are not common. The beaver (Castor) is a large semi-aquatic rodent with the nocturnal nature. These animals are well reputed to build dams, lodges, and canals. They are considered to be the second largest rodent in the world. They build dams to shield themselves from potential predators. There is a little difference amongst the beaver species in that some are greater in size with larger heads, slimmer muscles, less oval-shaped tails, and lighter underfur. Similarly, the North American beavers have square nasal openings contrary to the Eurasian species, which have triangular one. Fur color is another difference among these species. More than 20% beavers exhibit reddish brown furs and 4% have blackish coats.
What Do Beavers Eat
Basically beavers are herbivores and they like to eat cottonwood, willow, birch maple, quaking aspen, alder, and cherry trees. Beavers are also known to feed on water lilies, sedges, and pondweed. Beavers do not hibernate, but store sticks and logs in a pile in their ponds, eating the underbark. Few of these piles are higher than water and hoards snow in the winter. This insulation prevents the water from freezing inside as well as around the food pile thereby allowing beavers to breathe out of their lodge. Some fossils of an extinct beaver have been discovered in Britain. Although they have poor eyesight beavers have a profound hearing and smelling sense. The growth of their teeth is consistent. They primarily prefer to feed on plants including clover, raspberry canes, twigs, bark, leaves, grasses and aquatic plants.
In the wild, beavers can live up to 10 years whereas they may survive up to 20 to 30 years under captivity. Once there were believed to be more than 60 million beavers across North America. However, with the passage of time the population faced sudden decline due to excessive hunting for their glands and furs. Most of these species exhibit brown furs. The largest dam ever built by these animals’ measures around 2,790 feet (850 metres) long.
Leave a Reply