In the spring, the snow quickly melted, the water rose and flooded the beaver's hut.
The beavers dragged the beaver cubs onto dry leaves, but the water got even higher, and the beavers had to swim into the water. different sides.
The smallest beaver was exhausted and began to drown.
I noticed him and pulled him out of the water. I thought it was a water rat, and then I saw a tail like a spatula, and I guessed that it was a beaver.
At home, he spent a long time cleaning and drying himself, then he found a broom behind the stove, sat down on his hind legs, took a twig from the broom with his front legs and began to gnaw on it.
After eating, the beaver collected all the sticks and leaves, tucked it under itself and fell asleep.
I listened to the little beaver snoring in his sleep. “Here,” I think, “what a calm animal - you can leave him alone, nothing will happen!”
He locked the little beaver in the hut and went into the forest.
All night I wandered through the forest with a gun, and in the morning I returned home, opened the door, and...
What is it? It was like I was in a carpentry shop!
There are white shavings lying all over the floor, and the table has a thin, thin leg: a beaver has gnawed it from all sides. And he hid behind the stove.
During the night the water subsided. I put the beaver in a bag and quickly took it to the river.
Ever since I see a tree felled by beavers in the forest, I immediately remember the beaver cub that chewed up my table.

The common beaver is a large semi-aquatic animal, a representative of the order Rodents. The common beaver is also called the river beaver. The beast amazes with his skills: he is an experienced builder, an excellent owner and an exemplary family man. The common beaver is the second largest rodent in the world. In this article you will find a description and photo of the common beaver and learn a lot of new and interesting things about these rodents.

Before I tell you what beavers look like, I would like to clarify a little. Very often when people use the words beaver and beaver, they mean the same thing - that is, the rodent itself. But these two words have different meanings. So, beaver is the name of the animal, and its fur is called beaver.

So what do beavers look like? A common beaver looks like large rodent. The animal’s body length reaches 1 meter, height – up to 35 cm, with a body weight of 32 kg. The length of the beaver's tail is up to 30 cm, and the width is up to 13 cm. An amazing fact of these rodents is that the females are larger than the males.

The common beaver has short legs and a squat body. The hind legs of the river beaver are much stronger than the front ones. The second toe of the hind paws has a claw that is forked - the beaver combs its fur with it like a comb. These animals carefully look after their “fur coat”.

On its paws the rodent has swimming membranes and strong thickened claws. Beavers look quite unusual because of their amazing tail. The beaver's tail resembles an oar, it is flat, without hair and covered with horny scales.

The common beaver has a large head with a narrow muzzle, small eyes and prominent incisors at the front. A beaver's teeth are special; they are covered with durable enamel, grow throughout their lives and sharpen themselves. The common beaver has small and short ears that are barely visible in the thick fur. Despite this, the animal has excellent hearing.

Beavers look like real fur barons, because they have beautiful shiny fur. Beaver fur has two layers, which keeps this rodent warm and dry in cold winters. The first layer of beaver fur consists of coarse long hair, and the second is a very thick silky undercoat. The river beaver is also protected from the cold by the presence of a layer of fat under its skin.

Beavers look inconspicuous due to their coloring. The fur of the common beaver is light chestnut or dark brown, sometimes even black. The tail and limbs of the animal are black. The tail of the common beaver has wen and special glands.

The odorous substance produced by the tail glands of rodents is called beaver squirt. And the secret of the wen contains all the information about the owner, carries information about his age and gender. A guide to other beavers about the boundaries of the settlement territory is the smell of the beaver stream, which is unique for each individual. IN wildlife The common beaver lives on average 15 years.

Beavers live in Europe (Scandinavian countries), France (lower Rhone River), Germany (Elbe River basin) and Poland (Vistula River basin). Beavers are also found in forest and forest-steppe zones of the European part of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine.

In Russia, the beaver lives in the Northern Trans-Urals. Beavers live scatteredly in the upper reaches of the Yenisei River, in the Kuzbass (Kemerovo region), in the Baikal region, in the Khabarovsk Territory, in Kamchatka, in the Tomsk region. In addition, beavers are found in Mongolia and Northwestern China.

Beavers live with full equipment to lead a semi-aquatic lifestyle. Their ear openings and nostrils close underwater. And special nictitating membranes cover their eyes, which allows them to see well in the water. Oral cavity designed so that water does not get into it while the animal is working under water. The function of a rudder in the water is performed by the beaver's tail.

Beavers live, preferring to inhabit the banks of calm rivers and lakes, ponds and reservoirs. They avoid fast and wide rivers, as well as reservoirs that freeze to the bottom in winter. For these rodents, it is important to have trees made of soft hardwood, the presence of aquatic, herbaceous and shrub vegetation in coastal zones and along the banks of a reservoir.

Beavers dive and swim well. Thanks to their large lungs, they can stay underwater for up to 15 minutes and swim up to 750 meters during this time. Therefore, beavers feel more confident in water than on land.

Beavers live in families (up to 8 individuals) or alone. Family consists of married couple and young beavers (broods over the last two years). The same plot can be used by a family for many generations. Small bodies of water are occupied by single beavers or one family. Larger reservoirs accommodate several families, and the length of each individual family plot along the shore ranges from 300 meters to 3 km. Beavers live near water and do not move more than 200 meters from the coastline.

The length of the family plot depends on the abundance of food. In places where vegetation is abundant, the areas of these animals can border each other and even intersect. Beavers mark the boundaries of their territories. Beavers communicate using scent marks. Beavers communicate with each other using poses, striking the water with their tails, and whistling-like calls. In case of danger, the beaver loudly slaps its tail on the water and dives. This clap gives an alarm to all beavers within earshot.

At night and at dusk, beavers are active. In summer, they leave their homes at dusk and work until dawn. In the fall, beavers prepare for winter and begin to prepare food. The working day increases to 10 hours. In winter, beavers live less actively, their labor activity decreases and moves during daylight hours. Beavers spend the winter, almost never appearing on the surface, but they do not hibernate. At temperatures below −20 °C, the beaver spends the winter surrounded by its family, remaining in its warm home.

Beavers are building new house In the end of August. Lonely beavers do not build buildings, but family beavers work very hard. What is the name of a beaver's home? In one beaver settlement there are two types of dwellings. In the first case, the beaver's home is called a burrow. Beavers live in burrows; they dig them in steep, steep banks. For safety, the entrance to such a beaver's home is always under water. Beaver burrows are a kind of labyrinth that has 4 entrances. The walls and ceiling of the beaver's hole are carefully leveled.

The beaver's living house inside the hole is located at a depth of up to 1 meter and a width of just over a meter, with a height of 50 cm. The floor is always above the water level. If the water in the river rises, the beaver raises the floor by scraping soil from the ceiling. All construction activities of beavers are dictated by their desire for safety and comfort. Where it is impossible to dig holes, houses are built directly on the water in the shallow part of the reservoir. Such a beaver’s dwelling is called a hut, and beavers build these floating houses according to the principle of constructing a dam.

Beaver huts look like a cone-shaped island protruding from the water. The height of such a beaver house reaches 3 meters and a diameter of up to 12 meters; the entrance to the house is under water. A beaver lodge is built from a pile of brushwood, which is held together by silt and earth. Beavers carefully coat the walls of their homes with silt and clay. Thus, the beaver's hut turns into a strong fortress, and air enters through the hole in the ceiling.

Inside the beaver lodge there are passages into the water and a platform that is located above the water level. When frosts come, beavers additionally apply a new layer of clay to the hut using their front paws. In winter, the beaver huts maintain above-zero temperatures, the water in the passages is not covered with a crust of ice, and the beavers calmly go under the ice of the reservoir. In winter, there is steam above the inhabited beaver lodges. Beavers are real clean people; they keep their homes clean, never littering them.

In bodies of water where the water level is variable, beavers build dams or ponds. Why do beavers build dams? The beaver dam allows them to increase and maintain the water level in the reservoir, and regulate it so that the entrances to the lodges do not dry out. The dam ensures the safety and security of the beaver lodge. Beavers build dams from branches, brushwood and tree trunks, holding them together with clay, silt and other materials. If there are stones at the bottom, they are also used in construction.

Beavers build dams in areas where trees grow closer to the shore. The construction of a beaver dam begins with the beavers diving and vertically sticking trunks into the bottom, strengthening the gaps with branches and filling the voids with silt, clay, and stones. If there is a tree that has fallen into the river, it often serves as a supporting frame. Beavers gradually cover it from all sides building materials. Often branches in beaver dams take root, which gives additional strength to the structure.

A beaver dam usually reaches a length of up to 30 meters, a width of up to 6 meters, and a height of usually 2 meters, but sometimes up to 4 meters. Beaver Dam – robust design, it can easily support the weight of a person. On average, it takes a beaver family about a month to build a dam. Beavers carefully ensure that the dam remains intact and immediately repair it if damage is detected.

To build a beaver dam and store food, beavers cut down trees. They gnaw them at the base, chew off branches, and divide the trunk into parts. A beaver cuts down a tree with a diameter of 7 cm in 5 minutes. A tree 40 cm in diameter is felled by a beaver and processed overnight, so that in the morning only a pointed stump and a pile of shavings remain.

The trunk of a tree, which the beaver has already worked on, but has not yet knocked down, takes on a characteristic shape in the form of “ hourglass" Some of the branches of the fallen tree are eaten by beavers on the spot. They demolish the rest or float them across the water to the construction site of the dam or their house.

Every year, the well-trodden beaver routes gradually fill with water, forming beaver channels. Animals float wood food along them. The length of such channels can reach hundreds of meters. Beavers always keep their canals clean.

An area that has been transformed by beaver activity is called a beaver landscape. In their ability to change the natural landscape, they are second only to humans. Beavers are one of the most unique animals because they are able to learn and improve their skills throughout their lives.

Beavers are vegetarians; they are exclusively herbivores. Beavers feed on tree bark and shoots. Beavers love birch, willow, aspen and poplar. Beavers also eat various herbaceous plants: water lilies, irises, cattails, reeds and this list includes many items.

A large number of softwood trees are a necessary condition their habitat. Hazel, linden, elm, bird cherry and some other trees are not so important and significant in their diet. They usually do not eat alder and oak, but use them for buildings. But the beaver eats acorns willingly. Large teeth allow beavers to easily cope with tree food. Beavers typically feed on only a few tree species.

IN summer period the proportion of grassy food that the beaver eats increases. In the fall, economic beavers begin to prepare woody food for the winter. Therefore, in winter, beavers feed on their reserves. Beavers put them in water, where they retain their nutritional qualities all winter.

The volume of supplies for a family can be very huge. To prevent food from freezing into the ice, beavers usually heat it below the water level. Therefore, even when the reservoir is covered with ice, food will remain available to the animals and the family will be provided with everything they need.

Baby beavers

Beavers are monogamous, once united, they live together all their lives and remain true friend to a friend. The female dominates the family. Beavers become capable of reproduction at 2 years of age. Offspring are born once a year. The mating season lasts from mid-January to the end of February. The duration of pregnancy is 3.5 months.

In April-May, from 2 to 6 beaver cubs are born. Beaver cubs are born sighted, well covered with fur, and weigh on average 0.5 kg. After 2 days, beaver cubs can already swim. Beavers take care of their young.

At the age of 1 month, beaver cubs switch to a plant diet, but the mother continues to feed on milk for up to 3 months. Grown-up beavers usually do not leave their parents for another 2 years, after which the young animals move out.

How is a beaver useful and what are beavers for?

Beavers are useful because their appearance in rivers has a beneficial effect on the ecological system. The beaver is especially useful in building its dams. Various living creatures and waterfowl settle in them, bringing fish eggs on their legs, and fish appear in the reservoir. Beavers are needed because their dams help purify water, they retain silt and reduce turbidity.

Beavers are peaceful animals, but they also have enemies in nature - brown bears, wolves and foxes. But the main threat to beavers is humans. As a result of hunting, the common beaver was on the verge of extinction by the beginning of the 20th century. Beavers are hunted for their fur. In addition, they produce a beaver stream, which is used in perfumery and medicine.

To preserve this valuable animal, effective measures were taken to protect and restore its numbers. By the beginning of the 21st century, the beaver population had recovered. Now the common beaver has a minimum risk status in the International Red Book. Currently, the main threat to it is water pollution and the construction of hydroelectric power plants.

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Lesson objectives:

• Educational: improve students' knowledge on the topic being studied, develop students' speech.
• Educational: continue to develop in students a respectful attitude towards nature and “our smaller brothers”.

Corrective: improve students' methods of writing detailed expositions.

Lesson equipment:

• Blackboard
• Handouts for students
• Different kinds linguistic dictionaries
• Pictures depicting elements of the story (hunter, beaver, dam on the river)

During the classes

1. Organizational moment. Explanation of the goals and objectives of the lesson. Motivation of students.

Examination homework students carry out throughout the lesson.

2. introduction with students (in the form of a conversation)

Highlights of the conversation:

• about spring river floods;
• about the disasters that animals suffer at this time;
• about how people come to their aid.

3. Initial familiarization of students with the text for presentation(first reading of the text by the teacher)

Presentation text:

BEAVERN.

The beavers dragged the beaver cubs onto dry leaves, but the water rose even higher, and the beaver cubs had to swim away in different directions.

The smallest beaver became exhausted and began to drown. I noticed him and pulled him out of the water. I see a tail like a spatula, and I guessed that it was a beaver.

At home it took a long time to clean and dry. Then he found a broom behind the stove, sat down on his hind legs, took a twig from the broom with his front legs and began to gnaw.

I wandered through the forest with a gun all night, and returned home in the morning. There are white shavings lying all over the floor, and the table has a thin, thin leg. The little beaver gnawed it from all sides, and hid behind the stove.

During the night the water subsided. I put the beaver in a bag and quickly took it to the river. (124 words) (According to G. Snegirev)

4. Checking students’ initial perception of text material(oral work in class with presentation text):

Answer the questions:

1. What happened to the beaver lodge in the spring?
2. Why did the hunter decide that it was a beaver cub?
3. What else can you say about appearance beaver?
4. Where do beavers live?
5. What do they eat?
6. Why are dams built?
7. What picture did the hunter see upon returning home?
8. Which sentence in the text indicates that the hunter was trying to part with the beaver? (I put the beaver in a bag and quickly took it to the river.)

5. Second reading of the text for presentation.

6. Drawing up a presentation plan.

What parts can be identified in the text? How to title them?

Presentation plan:

(Compiled together with the students and written down by the teacher on the board).

1. High water.
2. Little beaver.
3. In the hunter's hut.
4. Night work beaver
5. Hurry to the river.

7. Vocabulary work.

Write on the board vocabulary words and their spelling is explained: The little beaver, picked up, blurred, with a spatula, thin, thin, quickly.

8. Oral and written tasks for the development of students’ speech and the prevention of spelling and punctuation errors in the text of the presentation.

1. What words and expressions that are close in meaning can be selected for these words and phrases:

• the water has risen - arrived
• beaver lodge - beaver house
• the water got even higher - it came
• spatula tail - wedge-shaped
• wandered through the forest with a gun - walked
• lying around - lying
• gnawed - sawed

– Which of these words should be preferred and why?

2. Choose synonyms for the words:

• build - create
• melted - floated
• small - small
• cleaned himself - dusted himself off

3. Explain the spelling of consonants in the root words:

• gnaw
• shavings.

4. Explain (orally) the spellings in words:

• rose
• flooded
• blur
• wandered
• lying around
• planted

5. Analyze the sentences by members, explain the placement of punctuation marks.

In the spring, the snow quickly melted, the water rose and flooded the beaver's hut.

The smallest beaver became exhausted and began to drown.

The little beaver gnawed it from all sides, and hid behind the stove.

9. Final reading of the text for presentation(immediately before writing)

10. Explaining the new homework(students need to repeat the material on the topic being studied).

The lesson is summarized after checking the students' work.

Many people have heard about him, but not everyone has seen him in person. The consonance of the animal's name with a word such as "good" made it popular in the context of sharing. There is such a comic poem, the beginning of which sounds like this:

“As you know, beavers are kind.

Beavers are full of kindness.

To everyone who wants good things for themselves,

You just need to call the beaver..."

So, let's take a closer look at what these are, where they live and what they eat, and also consider Interesting Facts about beavers.

Who is a beaver?

This is a mammal of the rodent order. The beaver first appeared in Canada, which is where it comes from. This is a trusting, intelligent and hardworking animal.

Previously, the Catholic Church considered the beaver to be a fish, for this reason its meat was eaten during Lent. Regarding attitude Orthodox Church To this end, she categorically forbade eating his meat - it was considered a sin.

The beaver is one of the largest rodents; in Europe it ranks first in this indicator, and in the world - second.

For example, an adult male's weight may be the same as that of an eight-year-old child. In addition to the fact that they are famous for their hard work, these animals are also very brave. So, if beavers get very scared, they may attack. But they won’t do it just like that, only in case of danger.

An animal in its natural habitat can live up to 14 years, but in captivity it is even 2-3 times longer.

How do they look?

He has a squat body and short legs. There are membranes between the toes designed to improve swimming. The beaver has small eyes and short ears. The tail is flat and resembles an oar. Their color is mostly brown, but some individuals can be black. Weight is about 20-30 kg, body length is about 1 meter.

Beavers have a third eyelid to better navigate the water while swimming. Some people think that the tail helps beavers swim, but this is not true. In water, they use their webbed hind feet for this purpose. The tail serves more to maintain balance. With its help, they also regulate body temperature, and it is also a kind of pantry for storing fat. In addition, they slap them on the ground or water, thereby warning each other of danger.

They secrete a special liquid that gives the animal’s fur a water-repellent effect.

Magnificent builders

If you read interesting facts about beavers, you are truly amazed at their ability to build. The dams they built are visible even from space. They show incredible results in their construction. The length of the dams can be 700 meters. But this is not a record yet: a case was recorded when beavers in the state of New Hampshire built a dam that was 1.2 km long. On average, it takes one beaver family a week to build a 10 m dam.

Interesting facts about such an unusual animal as a beaver say that on average, during its life, it can cut down 100 trees and build 50 dams.

They place the entrance to the dwelling under water, and make the mink itself above this level.

Thanks to powerful jaw muscles and sharp teeth, they have great bite force. They are capable of felling even powerful trees, but, unfortunately, this is precisely the reason why many deaths of these animals occur.

Beavers are very skilled builders: their dams are extremely strong and the animals have an amazing sense of choosing the most successful places for their construction.

The amazing animal beaver: interesting facts about it

People always learn something new about them; they are very interesting and kind creatures.

1. These animals try not to stray far from the water and are always near it within 200 meters.

2. Thanks large sizes lungs and liver, they can hold their breath for as long as 15 minutes, which is a record for semi-aquatic mammals. During this time, this small animal can swim a decent distance of 700 meters.

3. And here's another amazing fact: Scientists who excavated the remains of a beaver dating back to ancient times were amazed. Just think, he was the size of a man! The height of the find was 165 cm, and the weight was 60 kg.

4. These animals easily bite through small branches, but can also cope with an entire tree. So, a beaver can chew through about 25 cubic meters per night. cm of some soft wood, like alder, aspen or poplar.

5. If we study interesting facts about beavers, we will find in them a recorded case when a beaver was able to fell a thick tree, the diameter of which was about 1 meter.

6. B Ancient Rus' in case of theft of a beaver, a heavy fine was imposed on the thief.

7. When the Indian tribes went hunting, they said a prayer, turning to the Great Beaver.

8. In Latin, the word “beaver” sounds like castor, which is where the name castor oil comes from.

9. Beavers most often die from being crushed by trees, which, however, they often cut down themselves.

10. Interesting facts about beavers describe a case where one of the rodents’ teeth stopped wearing out and continued to grow. It grew to such a size that it began to reach his left eye. But these cases still occur rarely.

11. Monuments were erected to these animals in the city of Bobruisk. The image of this animal is on Canadian coins.

12. In winter, they do not hibernate, but simply become less active.

13. Once upon a time there was a time when these animals were in danger of extinction, however, thanks to the measures taken, the situation was corrected.

Offspring

Beaver cubs live with their parents until they are about 2 years old. They can have up to 5 children at once.

Beavers do not teach their offspring the skills of building a home - this skill is already inherent in them from birth.

In their family, as a rule, there are 5-9 individuals, including parents and their cubs, which, having left them, can live alone for some time. Each family is assigned a certain territory, which is allocated to them for many generations; its area can reach 3 square meters. m.

Beavers are monogamous. The head of the family is the mother. Their homes are always clean and warm.

For the winter, they store a lot of food in the form of tree branches, so they don’t have to worry about hunger.

And we continue the story about beavers.

Interesting facts: what do these animals eat?

Many people believe that their diet consists exclusively of fish, but this is a mistaken opinion: beavers do not eat fish at all. In fact, they are absolute vegetarians. The idea that these animals feed on fish apparently formed due to the fact that they spend a lot of time in the water. But in fact, they feed on woody plants, because it’s not for nothing that they are given powerful incisors. They love to eat the wood of poplar, willow, and birch, and also feed on young, succulent shoots of plants.

Body Features

They are most active at night and at dusk. Some features of its body make life easier for the beaver. The split nail on the second toe allows the animal to comb its fur, and the tail, covered with hard scales, helps the animal burrow through the depths.

Beavers' teeth wear down, and to compensate for this process, their incisors grow at a fairly high rate - about 0.5 cm per month.

Now let's look at whether beavers can be domesticated - interesting facts for children who might want to see this animal next to them.

How to care for it?

The interesting facts about beavers described above concern their life in natural conditions. What about life in captivity? The beaver can also live at home, although it is rarely seen in this capacity. It's not easy to maintain it. A beaver always needs to chew and build something, and accordingly, he will try to do this within the walls of the house. So it wouldn’t be practical to just put him in an apartment.

It is better to make a large nursery or cage for him. You need to give him wood so he can wear down his teeth. He does not eat meat. He will eagerly eat tree bark, roots, shoots, brewer's yeast, nuts, herbaceous plants, mixed feed, fruits and vegetables, and special feed mixtures.

As a rule, the animal needs to be fed once a day, evening time. If we talk about the amount of food, the daily norm is about 1 kg.

There should be a small pool next to the beavers, because they are used to living in water.

Basically, these rodents are good-natured towards humans or can treat them with indifference, without showing any emotions. But sometimes there are individuals who show aggression, but these simply need time to get used to it.

Conclusion

Here we looked at interesting facts about beavers. There are many creatures in the world that arouse genuine curiosity among people, for example, among insects, one is the dragonfly, which has survived to this day since the Jurassic period. and beavers are, in fact, amazing and sometimes amazing. Did you know that the dragonfly is a predator? And its effectiveness during hunting is 95%? Truly a miniature killing machine.

Beaver

In the spring, the snow quickly melted, the water rose and flooded the beaver's hut.

The beavers dragged the beaver cubs onto dry leaves, but the water rose even higher, and the beaver cubs had to swim away in different directions.

The smallest beaver became exhausted and began to drown.

I noticed him and pulled him out of the water. I thought it was a water rat, and then I saw a tail like a spatula, and I guessed that it was a beaver.

At home, he spent a long time cleaning and drying himself, then he found a broom behind the stove, sat down on his hind legs, took a twig from the broom with his front legs and began to gnaw on it.

After eating, the little beaver collected all the sticks and leaves, raked it under him and fell asleep.

I listened to the little beaver snoring in his sleep. “Here,” I think, “what a calm animal: you can leave him alone, nothing will happen!”

He locked the beaver in the hut and went into the forest.

All night I wandered through the forest with a gun, and in the morning I returned home, opened the door, and...

What is it? It was like I was in a carpentry shop!

There are white shavings lying all over the floor, and the table has a thin, thin leg: a beaver has gnawed it from all sides. And he hid behind the stove.

During the night the water subsided. I put the beaver in a bag and quickly took it to the river.

Ever since I see a tree felled by beavers in the forest, I immediately remember the little beaver that chewed up my table.