Beaver

media type="custom" key="19638382" Photo **By [|vastateparksstaff]**

__**Appearance**__
Beavers are 1 m long and weigh 30kg. They have 2 brown fur coats.They have short legs and a humped backs. Beavers have 4 orange front teeth. Beavers have paws that are like hands. They have 3 special eyelids for seeing underwater. Beavers have large, black, webbed feet to swim. Their tail is shaped like a paddle. This helps them swim. It is 30cm long. They have a strong flat tail.

__**Habitat**__
Beavers live in all parts of Canada, but not the arctic. Beavers live in Europe and the USA. They live close to the forest. Beavers build a lodge with mud and sticks. They build a lodge above and below water. beavers live with their family in a lodge. beavers use their homes for protection.

__**Diet**__
Beavers are herbivores. Herbivores are plant eaters. Beavers save food for the winter. They eat new green plants in spring and summer. Beavers eat tree bark,tall grass,weeds,roots,twigs and water lilies. Their favourite trees to eat are aspens or poplars. Beavers eat bark from the willow, birch and maple trees.

__**Predators**__
Beavers have lots of predators. Hawks, owls and river otters eat beavers' babies. People eat beavers too. They also fear eagles and large fish. Predators can be foxes, cougars and bobcats. Bears, wolves, wolverines, coyotes and lynxes eat beavers.

__**Offspring**__
Beavers babies are called kits or pups. In the spring kits are born. A litter is brown with 3 or 4 kits. Kits are born with thick fur. They can see, hear, walk and swim when they are born. The kits drink milk from their mother. The whole family cares for the kits. The kits leave home when they are 2 years old.

__**Adaptations**__
Beavers have 3 special eye lids for seeing under water .They have a special nose and ears that close when they are under water. Beavers have scales on their tales. They have double toe nails on each toe to comb their fur. Beavers have strong and sharp teeth that never stop growing to chew down trees.

__**Cool Facts**__

 * A beaver may carry a kit in its paws.
 * Beaver babies can chew sticks.
 * They can fightpredators with their teeth.
 * They work as a team to build their home or damn.
 * People made coats and hats with beaver fur.

References @http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/kids/animal-facts/beaver.asp @http://www.aitc.sk.ca/saskschools/animals/bvr.html