-PATRICIA LAWRENCE
Beavers do not go to school to learn how to build dams. They don't even have degrees in engineering from a local university. They don't have an assortment of tools to use. They know how to build dams because they were born with a natural instinct to build dams.
The beaver is an animal of the rodent family. He grows to about three and one-half feet tall. He can weigh as much as seventy-five pounds and is covered with dark brown fur on his entire body except his tail. His tail is broad, scaly and flat and is about one foot long. His tail helps him to swim and also to balance while cutting the trees he will use in building a dam and the lodge.
The beaver's front and back feet are different and they help them do different things. The front feet have strong, sharp claws and are used for digging, for holding food and carrying sticks and logs for building. The hind feet are webbed with two claws that he uses to groom his fur. He also uses his back feet to spread waterproofing oil on his fur to protect him from the cold.
The beaver has large cutting incisor teeth. Like chisels they chip away at large trees until the trees fall, so he can use them in his dam. His jaw has large muscles the give power to the chisel-like teeth. The beavers teeth grow throughout his lifetime so that cutting never completely wears them down.
When our skilled builder swims, his ears and nose are closed by valves which allows him to stay underwater for as long as fifteen minutes at a time.
Our busy builder lives in a colony with as many as twelve other beavers including his parents, as beaver parents stay together for a lifetime. Their home is called a beaver lodge and is built with branches two to six feet long, piled together. There are two rooms in the lodge. An upper room which is above the water level. The upper room has a chimney that allows air into the living chambers of the lodge. Another room is called the central or main room and is above the water level also. There are one or more tunnels from the main room as exits for the beaver to the water below. The walls of the beaver lodge are well insulated with mud which the beaver has packed between the branches. Beaver lodges are usually built close to a cluster of trees.
Upstream from their lodge the beavers will build a dam, and another will be built downstream from the lodge. Large aspen and willow logs are cut from trees along the shore of the stream. These logs are put in place and packed with mud to make them watertight. Sometimes when logs are too large for the beaver to move on the ground he digs a canal and floats the logs to the dam. Beavers closely watch their dams and lodges to find anyplace where repairs must be made and repair them so the dams and the lodge will remain strong.
Many peope feel that the beaver is a very smart animal since beaver dams and lodges fail no more often than man made dams and buildings. However, studies show the beaver has no more mental ability than other rodents. Many beavers are killed while cutting trees, as the trees fall on them. Sometimes beavers try to build a dam where there is a stone or concrete dam already in place.
Beavers spend the winter months in their lodge. The young beavers eat the bark of aspen and willows which have been stored in the lodge for their winter food. However, the older beavers eat little or no food during the winter as they live on their own body fat.
Now we know that the beaver is not only a busy dam builder, but that he is marvelously made. We know the beaver has fascinating abilities. Abilities which allow him to build amazingly strong dams and lodges. And these things he builds only with the tools God has so carefully designed for him.
HUDGINS
AND
CORBIN.COM
7/27/07
GUESTBOOK
GUESTBOOK