11 Facts to Beef Up Your Beaver Knowledge
“...Physiology & behavior
- Beavers... are second to humans for their ability to change habitats.
- Beaver’s footprints are rarely seen...due to the tail that drags behind, covering their tracks.- Beavers can hold their breath up to 15 minutes underwater, due to specialized lungs & a lowered metabolism.
- ...Beavers’ enamel is iron-rich... which gives beavers the gnaw power they need for cutting wood.
- Both a rudder & a gait stabilizer, the paddle-shaped tail of a beaver helps it navigate water & land.
A damming construction
- Dome-shaped & underwater entrances are 2 basic features of a beaver lodge.
- Beaver dams function as speed bumps for streams. By slowing down the speed of moving water they create deeper water.
- At 850 meters long, the beaver dam in Wood Buffalo National Park that straddles AB & the NWT can be seen from space!
- A beaver’s dam... helps to maintain stream flows, especially during droughts & helps store water during floods.
- Beavers are native to Canada & have been considered Canada’s national icon for 300 years.
- Beavers have bounced back from historic over-hunting for fur & meat, thanks to rehabilitation & conservation of wetlands, forests, & floodplain habitats.
...Beavers work hard at making ponds & wetlands, which are really important for waterfowl...& many types of fishes... The beaver pond not only creates open water/wetland habitat for the ducks, but the flooding often kills large trees in which the wood ducks (cavity dwellers) nest. For fish, sometimes the pond is the only deep water that remains during low water levels...”
Wendy Ho (The Nature Conservancy of Canada)
April 23/ 2016
care2.com
Cute Critter Pic
Weekly Chuckle
No comments:
Post a Comment