Beaver

Stumbling upon the sight of a beaver's workshop seemed overly exciting to me. Either I have never seen this before, or I have never had my mind open enough to my surroundings to catch the details of these miraculous semiaquatic rodents. They give the word rodent a new view in my mind. Adorable!

Although I have never caught an actual beaver at work, the thought that they were just here at some point is incredible.

Beavers build dams!

….but there's more.

They also build themselves a little cozy home, called a "Lodge".

Beavers are mostly nocturnal, so they do their work at night. Sawing away at trees is their biggest passion in life, and wow do they do a good job at it. The beaver eats while it works. Eating bark & stems, they also like plants and grasses.

Their teeth never stop growing!

After the beaver gets the tree down and prepared, it carries it to the building site. If it's too heavy to carry then it will dig out a trench/canal to the building site so the water will flow down the trench and the beaver can then swim it there.

After all the timber is in place it dives to the bottom of the water, and using its aquatic lenses to see, it gathers up mud and slaps it on with its powerful tail to make it waterproof.

The male and female beaver look the same and act the same. They distribute work evenly and work together to build their paradise.

They mate for life.

How sweet is that?

During the winter the beavers stay under water in their lodge. They build rooms in their lodge that are above water but have tunnels to exit down under the ice.

They have their food all prepared and stored away.

Beavers are the best!