by admin on Saturday, March 13, 2010 16:24 under Interesting Facts.
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- Beavers are born with innate dam-building instincts. In zoos, they regularly `repair’ concrete dams with twigs.
- It takes two adult beavers about 15 minutes to gnaw their way through a treetrunk with a 10 cm diameter.
- Mother beavers push tired youngsters ahead of them through the water, like swimming floats.
- Storing extra oxygen in its lungs and body tissues, a beaver can remain under water for up to 15 minutes.
- Beavers use the split claws on their hind feet for grooming and spreading waterproof oil.
- A beaver signals danger by smacking the water with its tail. The noise carries over 1 km.
- The territory-marking secretion of the beaver contains the main ingredient 1 1 1 the painkiller aspirin.
- Beavers’ dams and lodges can help create environments for fish.
- In some parts of the USA, beavers are parachute-dropped into areas where remote rivers need damming to reduce erosion.
- The beaver uses its huge incisor teeth to gnaw through branches and tree trunks. European beavers took to living in burrows to avoid hunters. They are now protected by law.
