Wildlife
Nature's own lumberjacks, American beavers fell large trees using nothing more than their strong front teeth. They then use the timber to build their famous dams and lodges. Ground-breaking infra-red filming for the Life of Mammals revealed that beavers willingly share their lodges, and even their food, with another rodent: the muskrat. The beaver's flattened and scaly tail is just one of a number of superb adaptations to their watery habitat. Not content with being North America's biggest rodent, the American beaver is also the world's third largest, out-sized only by its European cousin and by the capybara.
Did you know?
Canada is home to the world's largest beaver dam and at 850m long it can be seen from space.
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Beaver hotel
Infra-red cameras reveal a welcome guest at a beaver lodge: the musk rat.
Infra-red cameras reveal a welcome guest at a beaver lodge: the musk rat.
Dam builders
Highly skilled engineers, beavers create new lakes with their dams.
While beavers can get around perfectly well on land they are most at home in the water because they have webbed hind feet and a large paddle-like tail. Beavers feed on all kinds of vegetation and eat wood as well as leaves. The large ponds they live in, such as one in the Teton Mountains in Wyoming, are entirely their own creation. Only a few years ago it was a shallow stream flowing straight down the valley, then a family of beavers moved in and built a dam. The lake they created is lined with logs of all sizes as well as mud and vegetation. To within a few inches, it is horizontal across its entire length of about 150 yards, and the lake is has created stretches upstream for almost a mile. If they detect the slightest leak, they will start repair work immediately, bringing new logs and mud. Keeping the water at a high level means that the beavers can swim in safety to their main source of food. They dig channels that lead them right into the heart of the surrounding woodland where they can nibble at fallen tree trunks in comparative safety should a bear or a mountain lion turn up.
The North American beaver can be found in a number of locations including: North America. Find out more about these places and what else lives there.
The following habitats are found across the North American beaver distribution range. Find out more about these environments, what it takes to live there and what else inhabits them.
Discover what these behaviours are and how different plants and animals use them.
Additional data source: Animal Diversity Web
Least Concern
Population trend: Stable
Year assessed: 2008
Classified by: IUCN 3.1
The North American beaver (Castor canadensis) is one of the two beaver species. It is found in the Americas, native to North America and introduced to South America. In the United States and Canada, where no other species of beaver occurs, it is usually simply referred to as "beaver". Its other vernacular names, including American beaver and Canadian beaver, distinguish this species from the one other extant beaver, Castor fiber, native to Eurasia. ("Canadian beaver" also refers to the subspecies Castor canadensis canadensis.)
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Paternal care
Adapted to swimming
Acoustic communication
Herbivorous
Food storage
Maternal care
Monogamous
Active at birth
Social
Chemical communication
Territorial
Viviparous
Nocturnal