Facts about beavers

Beavers can be frusterating and fascinating!

The following is a brief collection of facts about beavers and some tips on sharing (or not) your land with them.

Do you have a beaver tale to tell? Tell us!

The beaver is a essentially a large, nocturnal, semi-aquatic rodent. Mature males generally weigh 40 to 60 pounds (19 to 25 kg), but can weigh over 100 pounds (40 kg). The life span of beaver is 5 to 10 years, with some living up to 20 years.

Beavers have webbed hind-feet, and a broad, scaly tail. They have poor eyesight, but keen senses of hearing, smell, and touch.

Beavers are known for their distress signal - when startled or scared, a beaver will dive below the surface while forcefully slapping the water with its broad tail. This creates a loud slapping sound that can be heard over great distances both above and below the water. This noise serves as a warning to other beavers. Once a beaver has made this danger signal, nearby beavers dive under water and may not come up for some time. Beavers are reported to be able stay under water for as long as 15 minutes. Rarely will a frightened beaver attack a human.

In recent years their population has declined due to extensive hunting for fur, for glands used as medicine and perfume, and because their harvesting of trees and flooding of waterways creates problems that are often incompatible with our human expectations.

Beavers are industrious. When they move into a new stream, the first thing they do is build a dam. The purpose of the dam is to back the water up to give them better access to trees - and to provide a place to build their lodge.

The lodge is built with branches and mud. The beavers cover their lodges with fresh mud every autumn which freezes when the frost sets in. The mud becomes almost as hard as stone, so that neither wolves or wolverines can get in. It has underwater entrances to make entry nearly impossible for any other animal although apparently muskrats have been seen living inside beaver lodges.

Beaver damage

The problem with beavers is that they destroy trees, alter the course of waterways, flood land, and plug culverts. When you cannot live with this, you will have to take steps to control them.

My father waged a war with beavers in his creek for years. At one point he had someone "blow up" the dam. Check with officials in your area to determine the best way to deal with beavers on your property.

You can protect individual trees by wrapping them with galvanized metal or chicken wire to a height of at least 3 feet (1 m). Valuable broad-leaved trees can be protected by a galvanized metal fence at least 3 feet (1 m) high and 18 inches (0.5 m) below ground; however, this protection method can be expensive and time consuming.

Trapping beavers

In some places beavers are trapped. Find out if there is a registered trap line in your area. If so, you may be able to arrange for someone to come and take care of the problem for you, free or for a small fee.

Use of explosives should not be attempted by anyone except a trained professional. Remember too that If you destroy the dam without eliminating the beaver they will rebuild, often starting the same day. Like I said before, they are industrious.

Before taking any action to solve a beaver problem on your property, you must also take appropriate care to ensure that your activities will not cause any damage to your neighbor's property.

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