VIDEO: About life at the beaver dam

Submitted by Looduskalender EN on Sun, 16.07.2017 - 10:22
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Video and webcam screencaps Tiit Huntwww.rmk.ee
Translation Liis

 

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Beaver          Kobras        Castor fiber

 

After midnight when our sight only barely still distinguishes the forest outline against the background of sky the camera ”sees” even in colour as the video shows.

Earlier the beavers have arrived at the dam to work there about half an hour before midnight, and in early mornings they have been seen between 4 and 5 o’clock. In daytime we have not yet managed to see the mainly night-active animals in action in camera view.

Kobras

Kobras

The two separate images show how the dam looked on July 12th in the morning, and how much branches could be pushed into the dam in one night. In late evening one beaver started repairing the dam and later another arrived to help. This time they did not bring large poles nor were such sent down from upstream with the waterflow .

The building-securing of the dam is not limited only to placing stakes and branches into the dam. Watching the video you might ask why the beaver behind the wall is larking about and circling around as if aimlessly. That operation is also part of the building work – in swimming and consciously pushing up mud and small gravel to float in the water these get stuck between the branches and so the construction becomes even more waterproof.

The beaver dam that we observe is small but globally giant structures are known. Google Earth discovered that beavers in Canada have built such an enormous dam that it is visible even from outer space. So the 850 meters long beaver dam was discovered in 2010.

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