The biggest rodent in North America, beavers are among the few creatures that drastically alter their surroundings. They create sluggish wetlands and watertight dams, which lessen stream damage and create aquatic habitats for numerous other species.
A man noticed some beaver activity by his home and decided to put up a trail camera to see what was going on. Leave it to one chubby beaver to give him quite a show! They range in weight from 35 to 65 pounds, with the record-setting beaver being 110 pounds. These animals are one to 1 ½ feet tall and three to four feet long.
The beaver’s tail can take many different forms, but it typically measures approximately two inches in thickness at the bottom and tapers to around 0.24 inches at the tip. By watching this footage, it’s safe to say this beaver is on the thicker end.
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The video starts with a visit by a lone opossum in late November. This critter climbs a tree, shortly before our friend, the beaver, appears. Two trees stand, noticeably chewed from the beaver.
In addition to using the limbs left over to construct their dams and lodges, beavers eat the trees they fell for food. Beavers are most busy taking down trees in chilly climates in autumn as they are prepping for the cold season.
Timber!
One of the trees is much more chewed through than the other. The beaver begins chewing away in the middle of the night. To prevent their teeth from becoming too large for their jaws, rodents must continuously bite on hard objects. Beaver teeth can grow up to four feet in length each year! That is bigger than an adult beaver’s total body length!
Beavers are able to gnaw on as many tough materials as their incisors can handle because they don’t worry about breaking their teeth down. They normally have teeth that are orange or brown rather than the dazzling white of human teeth.
If you’ve ever wondered why beavers’ teeth are orange, it’s not because of environmental stains; instead, the iron in their tooth enamel is the cause. That iron, as you would have guessed, strengthens their teeth and improves their ability to slice through wood.
As this beaver chews and chews, the tree eventually starts to crack. The critter makes his way down a path just as the tree falls to the ground. The animal makes it out of the way just in the nick of time as the tree rolls onto the path.
William Sturtevant, the man filming the video, states that the animal wasn’t injured. It’s truly incredible to see how powerful beavers are and what they can do to create an environment they thrive in.
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