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OUR BUSY AMERICAN BEAVER Haunts and Habits of the Most Ro ¬ mantic of the Fur Bearers How He Builils anil Stores His Food Foodami ami Protects Himself from His HisEnemies Enemies Probably no other fur bearer holds such a roman ¬ tic interest as the beaver Its engineering feats arouse our wonder and its energy has passed into proverb Its very name is a synonym for industry The history of the exploration of North America is largely the record of the quest for the fur of the beaver Among the early traders a beaver skin was the universal standard of value in exchange for merchandise These early traders were so im ¬ pressed with the animals powers that they gave it credit for qualities it does not possess and many of these fables persist even to the present time timeAt At birth the beaver may be about half the size of a muskrat and is well furred and has its eyes open It is known that sometimes as many as five young are produced at one time but as the female lias only four teats it is likely that two or three are a more usual litter The young ones grow rap ¬ idly the first year so that by the following spring they will weigli about twenty pounds each They keep growing for several years occasionally reach ¬ ing a weight of sixty pounds though forty or fortyfive is about the average mature beaver A fortylive pound beaver will bo nearly four feet in total length built somewhat like an enormous muskrat only relatively wider and flatter bodied The tail is paddle shaped over a foot in length and from four to six inches wide The hind feet are very large and fully webbed The front feet are small shaped much like hands Only the hind feet are used in swimming A person who sees or han ¬ dles a live beaver for the first time has a curious sensation almost an uncanny feeling as the great scaly tail reminds him of tf floundering fish the hind feet seem to belong to some gigantic goose and has got onto a furry body by mistake mistakeCOARSE COARSE COVER TO BEAVERS FINE FUR FURThe The coat of a beaver appears about as coarse and unattractive as hogs bristles but underneath these coarse hairs is a tine silky fur The usual color is a sort of reddish brown or ashy brown but some specimens are almost a pure black The sexes are alike in all outward appearances They do not mate until three years old and it is supposed that they remain paired for life In the water a beaver behaves just like a muskrat and lias the same playful habit of slapping the water with its tail only the largo tail of the beaver strikes a blow that resounds like a pistol crack when heard in the still of the evening eveningThe The food of this animal consists principally of bark of poplar alders willow and other deciduous trees It also eats water lily roots and other veg ¬ etable matter As the beaver cannot climb the trees to get the bark it cuts them down It has powerful cutting teeth for this purpose and can lell a larg tret in a remarkably short time As anyone may notice a tree growing at the waters edge is inclined to lean over the water so it naturally falls that way but the beaver knows absolutely nothing about making a tree fall the way it wants it to They cut lots of trees that lodge and so are wasted wastedIn In the fall of the year beavers are busy laying up a supply of food for winters use For this purpose they cut the trues and limbs into length they can handle and store it under water where the bark will Icecj fresh and where it will l e accessible when the pond is frozen over There is no magic nr black art by which a beaver makes wood sink It does not take much to sink a green stick and a fortypound beaver has no trouble in holding it down till by firming the mud it will stay sunk Other green sticks are piled on top of it and help to hold each other down By spring most of the peeled sticks are water soaked enough to sink without any persuasion Having been under the in all winter the peeled sticks appiar like fresh cutting but really there is nothing to it when one comes to use his think tank a little littleThe The beaver builds a house similar to that of the muskrat only of course much larger It is made of sticks and moss or grass or mud Every fall just before it freezes the house is covered with a layer of mud to make it tight all except the top Some beaver houses rise six feet or more above the water and are often twenty feet in diameter at the water line The ontrancc is always under water waterCONSTRUCTION CONSTRUCTION FAMOUS DAM DAMWhen When beavers locate on a small stream where there is not a natural pond of suitable depth they dam the stream to form one The construction of tliese dams is in fact the beavers most remarkable achievement Some Inaver dams arc higher than a mans head and others perhaps not so high and are several hundred feet in length The dam seldom runs straight from bank to bank but curves against the current if the stream is narrow or follows a zig ¬ zag course if the stream is wide The beaver does not need a large log across the stream to terve as a foundation in building a dam In fact they are usually begun with rather small brush It has been said by some writers that no particular method was noticeable in the placing of the sticks com ¬ posing a beaver dam Closer observation of one in process of construction will reveal that there is both method and science to it although the method is now followed with mechanical precision The brush is placed witli the butts down stream and the tops weighted with mud to hold them in place In this position the crotches of the brush are up stream and cutch uvery twig or fiber that would1 otherwise wash away The brush also braces the dam and being on the lower side forms an apron so the water which is constantly trickling over the top doesnt undermine the structure structureIn In building either a dam or a house the beaver carries sticks in its teeth and mud between the front paws They never carry mud on their tails One curious thing is the construction of one or more smaller dams below the main dam Perhaps they have some special use but the present writers opinion is that the dam building instinct is strong and the young beavers do it for pastime pastimeOTTER OTTER NATURAL ENEMY OF THE BEAVER BEAVERThe The traditional enemy of the beaver is the wol ¬ verine happily now scarce Wolves bears and lynx all appreciate the delicate vegetable fed flesh of the beaver and are always alert to pounce upon one that happens to venture within reach And because it is so ill adapted to defend itself on land the beaver is seldom found there except when cutting trees for food But aside from man the most persistent enemy with which it has to contend is the otter Almost all published accounts rate the beaver and otter as great friends Oh yes the otter is fond of beaver all right all right but the beaver is not fend of otter Its tho old fable of the prairie dog and the rattlesnake Fortunately a fullgrown beaver is more than a match for an otter so it is only an occasional young specimen that falls prey to this cunning foe The otter has a habit of tunneling through the beavers dam and emptying the pond after ice has formed Some writers say the beavers do this to get an air space My own observation has failed to note a single instance where a beaver has broken its own dam but the otter has actually been detected right at the job jobThe The beaver also has to contend with the elements An exceedingly dry year may force it to leave its home in search of water or heavy freshets may wash away its house and drown the young before they are old enough to be about Or an unusually severe winter may freeze its pond clear to the bot ¬ tom thus locking up its food supply The beaver then is forced to come out and seek open water Perhaps it has to travel a long way in the snow and zero weather Being barefooted its feet soon freeze and being unable to travel the animal perishes miserably miserablyGROWING GROWING SCARCITY CALLS FOR PROTECTION PROTECTIONStill Still the way beavers multiply when protected from trappers proves that they are well adapted to hold tljeir own against their enemies and the elements Js well In Minnesota the beaver was getting scarce and protective laws were passed But for a while it was feared that the animal had become extinct in this state so a few were shipped in and liberated on the Itasca State Park where they have prospered till now there are hundreds in and near the park It also happens that here were some of the native Iwavers living in the wilder parts of I ake and Cook Counties Under protection tliese have multiplied till now they far niitnunilier those in the park colony Of course there is a lot of clandestine trapping for the fur as well as the Indians killing them the year round for meat nevertheless protection does help for while Minne ¬ sota now has a couple of thousand beavers there probably would not be one wen It not for the law lawIn In the summer time beavers travel about the streams and lakes and where not molested lose much of their natural timidity They have been seen to nibbln clover in a lawn by the waterside Indeed the ease wth whiih a beaver may be tamed its freedom from disease the cheapness of its food and the genuine worth of its fur leads to the hope that the law may be so amended as to per ¬ mit the domestication of this the true prince of fur bearers E W Pruett in IIunterTraderTrap IIunterTraderTrap1HT 1HT
