Beaver

Habitat: Beavers live in the transition zone between land and water, such as marshes, streams, rivers and lakes. Beavers prefer rivers and lakes surrounded by (swamp) forests with trees such as willow and poplar. The presence of forests on the banks is a requirement, but they also use banks without forests.

Appearance: Beavers are now found in various places in Europe, but only in the Elbe river basin in Germany, in southern Norway, along the Rhône in southern France, along the Dnieper in Belarus and along the Don in European Russia have original populations of beavers been able to maintain themselves. Several reintroductions have been carried out from these five small populations, and beavers are now found in most European countries.

Pairing season: Beavers mate from December to March. The young are born after about 105 days, remain in the lodge for four to six weeks and are suckled for three months. They are territorial, and the young are allowed to stay with their parents until the age of two, after which they must find their own territory.

Characteristics: The beaver is the largest rodent in Europe. It has short legs with five toes and webbed hind feet. The fur is grey to dark brown and consists of hairs that are so close together that no water can penetrate to the skin. The ears are small. The tail is flattened horizontally and “scaled”. Very characteristic are the large front teeth, covered with a hard layer of orange enamel, which enable beavers to gnaw through almost all woody plants.

Head-torso length: 70-100 cm, tail length: 25-37 cm (width: 12-16.5 cm)

Weight: 15-35 kg. The average lifespan is 8-12 years, with a maximum of 35 years.

Food: The beaver’s diet consists of leaves, twigs and bark from trees (willow and poplar are favourites) and rhizomes. They rarely eat coniferous wood. In summer, they eat a lot of herbaceous aquatic and terrestrial plants.