The Digital Frog Blog

Our educational software is chock-full of information on organisms from around the world. In each Digital Field Trip we select representative organisms, provide information on each, then incorporate them into a major activity. With the beaver, it’s a Bog Food Web Game. (You can download a paper version of this activity by joining our Frogger Club.)

This is the beaver information, taken from The Digital Field Trip to The Wetlands program.

BEAVER

Beavers are one of the largest rodents in the western hemisphere and can weigh up to sixty pounds. Their hind feet, webbed like a duck’s, make them powerful swimmers. A thick underlayer of hair keeps them warm and dry. All rodents have front teeth that never stop growing.

Hunting beavers for their fine furs has led to extinction in some areas. They now have protected status in many countries.

Habitat

Beavers spend most of their time in water. They can stay underwater for up to fifteen minutes.

They build a dome-shaped lodge to live in, using mud, rocks and tree branches. The lodge has entrances underwater, an internal platform above water level, and a place to store food underwater.

Beavers exert a great influence on their habitat by damming streams and creating ponds.

Behavior

Beavers work hard to dam streams, thus creating ponds that won’t freeze completely during the winter. They are skillful builders; if they run out of nearby wood for the dam, they build channels to float wood into the pond from further away! They create spillways in the dam, enlarge them to cope with heavy rain and build them up again in dry periods.

Beavers stay in the lodge for most of the day, then feed at dusk.

Life Cycle

Beavers give birth to 3-5 young in the Spring. The young are born with hair and their eyes open; they stay with their parents for up to two years.

Food Source

Beavers eat water plants and the bark and leaves of trees.

Range

Beavers are found in these areas:

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