Dam builders
Beavers dam streams with sticks and mud, to make a pond deep enough to hide the door of their home.
Northern forest
North American beaver
Castor canadensis
A big, brown, water-loving rodent with orange teeth, webbed back feet and a flat, scaly tail.
- Size
- About 1m long with the tail
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Rivers, lakes and ponds across North America
Waddles after you, dragging its tail. Move your pointer and see.
When to look
Beaver
Good to know
Six things about the beaver
Orange teeth
Its front teeth are orange because they contain iron, which makes them hard enough to cut down trees.
A warning slap
It slaps its tail on the water with a crack like a gunshot to warn its family of danger.
The lodge
The family lives in a dome of sticks with an underwater door and a dry room inside.
Built-in goggles
A see-through extra eyelid lets it see under water, and its lips close behind its teeth so it can chew there.
Back in Britain
A close cousin, the Eurasian beaver, has been brought back to rivers in Scotland and England.
The real thing
Photos of the beaver
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Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
How to spot one
Sit quietly by a beaver pond at dusk. Look for a V-shaped ripple, a dome of sticks, and tree stumps gnawed to a point.
How to help
Beaver ponds store water, slow floods and make homes for other wildlife. Support projects that give beavers room on our rivers.
Keep going