CHAPTER I
baby beavers
THE baby Beaver is the miracle of the whole animal world. He is the only youngster I know of who has a natural desire for hard work. This unusual little fellow is industrious from the time he gets control of his muscles. While he is as full of fun as young chipmunk, the habits of his forefathers and his natural instinct for work mark him as a rather serious-minded youngster.
In appearance, the baby Beaver is a soft reddish-brown ball of fur, instead of being covered with the coarse chestnut hairs as the old beavers are. He is about the size of a rat. His eyes are as bright as new shoe-buttons, and his little paws are very active for a baby's.
Usually five are born in a litter. Before the nursing period is over, the mother brings them twigs about the size of a lead pencil. They sit up on their haunches, hold the twigs in their little hands, and eat the bark. Long before he is out of childhood, he begins gnawing on bits of wood with his new teeth and exercising his jaws on everything he can reach. He carries small sticks in his mouth as soon as he begins to swim, and long before he is full-grown he begins gnawing trees.
The building instinct is strong in him. He leads the mammals of the world in mechanical and engineering skill. Our beavers are architects, carpenters, masons, lumbermen, log-cutters and dam-builders, and are the most versatile animals known. He is always on the job, and pays no attention to the unions.
The most expert lumber-jack is inferior to the Beaver as a tree feller. He cuts down trees in the most scientific way. He can fell a tree so it will fall toward the pond where he wishes to construct his home, thus saving himself unnecessary work.
After the trees are felled, the construction work begins. He works chiefly by night, for he is a nocturnal prowler. The moon is his lantern; the quiet of the night his inspiration; his sharp teeth are his hatchet and chisel; and his little paws are his means of conveyance, his spade, his hammer and his trowel. His hard, flat, hairless and scaly tail is a propeller when swimming and a balance when he is cutting timber, for he stands on his hind legs while gnawing down trees.
The trees which furnish bark most liked by beavers for food are the cottonwood, poplar, elm, willow, birch, aspen and box-elder. The bark of the oak, ash, and hickory are not eaten. The Beaver’s diet consist chiefly of barks, tender shoots and water plants. He is a strict vegetarian.
Sometimes the beavers have to build a dam exceeding fifty feet in length to flood low ground. They usually lay it out with the curve pointing up stream. The foundations of Beaver dams are built of poles, four or five feet in length by one or two inches in diameter. These he lays cross-wise, filling all crevices with mud.
He digs up mud with his forefeet, then holds it close to his breast with his forelegs, swims to where he has started his dam, and beats the mud down with his paws, and not with his tail, as has been said.
Then he builds his house. The beaver house is a well constructed affair of neatly trimmed poles from which the bark has been peeled and logs two or three feet long, with all spaces plastered full of mud. The house is a two-story affair. The entrance is under water, with a water tight living room well above high-water mark. The cellar is used for storing foods. The size of the house is four or five feet high and fifteen or eighteen feet in diameter. The exterior is not handsome; it resembles a last year's hen's nest, but it deceives his enemies as to his whereabouts and is warm and comfortable within.
The Beaver builds dams and houses for protecting himself and family. He has many enemies who seek him for food and for his beautiful fur. When his home is attacked, he makes his escape under deep water, and we are very glad that he has the cunning to protect himself from vicious marauders.
When a young Beaver is old enough to marry, he selects the prettiest girl of his acquaintance
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| By courtesy of the American Museum of Natural History |
| Old Beaver is the master "lumberjack" of the whole animal world. He can fell a tree and make it fall toward the pond where he wishes to build his house and dam, thus saving himself unnecessary work. He leads the world in mechanical and engineering skill and mankind has much to learn from this canny old rodent. |
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| By courtesy of the American Museum of Natural History |
| Beaver babies begin gnawing sticks the size of a lead pencil before they are weaned. Thus at an early age they sharpen their teeth for the Battle of Life. |
When living without a family, they club together in holes dug in a river-bank, living much the same as minks do. Under these conditions they do not lay in stores of food in winter, but live in hand-to-mouth fashion, securing enough food from day to day to subsist on. Neither do they build dams nor houses.
The Beaver is the largest gnawing animal (rodent) in North America. The average beaver is about three feet six inches long from tip to tip, and weighs about thirty-five pounds. One huge specimen caught in Eastern Canada weighed fifty-three pounds. The adult Beaver is soft greyish-brown in colour, covered with coarse chestnut hair that is waterproof. He has small brown eyes and long orange-coloured incisors; little funny ears, and a face resembling a squirrel.
Mr. Beaver spends most of his time in the water, but is an air-breathing mammal. He is found from Texas, throughout the Rocky Mountains, Sierras and Cascades, northward to the northern limit of trees, and throughout Canada and New England.