ORANGE COUNTY ZOO

 

Photo courtesy of  Irvine Park Railroad
 

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The Orange County Zoo is
owned and operated by the
County of Orange, California.


Web page produced by the
Orange County Zoological Society,
Copyright 2005.
 

  

North American Beaver
Castor canadenis

  • The North American beaver is known for its flat, scaly tail, webbed hind feet and huge incisor teeth. Beavers are the second heaviest rodent in the world, topping 66 pounds.

  • During the Pleistocene, a giant species of beaver existed that weighed 700 pounds.

  • The beaver can block its throat with the back of its tongue and the lips can close behind the incisors to allow for carrying branches underwater without choking.

  • The beaver's diet changes seasonally. In spring and summer, they feed on grasses, leaves, ferns, and algae. In fall, they prefer woody items. Their winter food is stored underwater near the lodge.

  • Beavers live in families that include an adult pair and one to three years worth of offspring. The kits are born in late spring and can swim within a few hours. Due to their small size and dense fur, they are too buoyant to submerge and are unable to swim out of the underwater entrance to the lodge.

  • Beavers actively scent mark with castoreum and secretions from their anal glands. This produces an odor that is musty and pungent.

  • The dam is built across a stream using mud, stones and sticks. They keep adding to the structure, which may reachover 330 feet long and 10 feet high. The entire family helps to build the dam, but the adult female is the most active participant. A canal is also built which aids the beaver in remaining in the water while moving between ponds or going to feeding areas.

  • These particular beavers invaded a nature reserve and were destroying a riparian habitat that was used by an endangered bird as breeding grounds. These beavers were going to be trapped and euthanised. The zoo offered to help and took two of the beavers in February 1999. An exhibit was built, complete with a den, two pools, a waterfall and a dam.

 

       

Web Camera -Beavers

 

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