What are some specific things beavers need in order to survive?

The BEAVER needs food and shelter in its preferred environment. For food it loves young popular trees four to six inches in diameter, close to a body of water, flowing or not. Of course, it will drop any available live deciduous tree near a body of water, in order to reach and strip all of the branches for tender and tasty new growth, and for engineering material for its shelter and swimming pool.

Beaver colonies remain small, so young beaver are always venturing out, looking for that ideal spot to set up a new home. If the water body is too shallow for their purposes, they will build a dam of sturdy tree branches and mud, saving the smallest branches for the upper sections, particularly at the spot they have decided to build their home.

As they are cementing their logjam with mud, their are carving out an entrance ditch from the bottom muck, such that they can swim in a deeper channel below the frozen layer of winter ice, to their underwater front door. The damned up waterway will provide waist-deep or deeper water for their swimming hole, and a safe passage home in times of danger.

Although beaver hibernate during the winter cold, they occasionally wake up for a tasty snack from their built-in refrigerator, the thick roof canopy and upper wall of their house. The structure is built thick enough not to freeze completely, so the interior is winter snack material.

First answer by Steve8rox. Last edit by Steve8rox. Contributor trust: 64 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 1 [recommend question]