Gioca STEMAnimals

Animals · Rivers, lakes and wetlands

Beaver

Castor fiber

The largest rodent native to Eurasia

A European beaver swims in a wetland: its tail can measure up to twenty inches in length.
A European beaver swims in a wetland: its tail can measure up to twenty inches in length.
  • Status: Safe
  • Rivers and wetlands of Europe, Siberia, and northern Mongolia

Numbers

Weight
44 lb24 to 66 lb, record registered 70 lb
Length
35 intotal head to tail, 31 to 39 in
Lifespan
10 years8 to 12 years
Record weight
70 lblargest specimen ever recorded
Tail
20 in10 to 20 in, almost half total length
Territory
32 acreswetland area occupied by each animal

Ten fun facts

  1. in 2018 a beaver was confirmed in Tarvisio, returning to Italy after a four-hundred-year absence.

  2. it is the largest rodent native to Eurasia, with the heaviest specimen ever recorded weighing seventy pounds.

  3. in the early twentieth century only four populations remained in Europe: the Rhone, the Elbe, the Dnieper, and southern Norway.

  4. by 2006 about six hundred and forty thousand beavers lived across twenty-two European nations after nearing extinction.

  5. the four hundred beavers living in Switzerland today descend from one hundred and forty individuals released between 1958 and 1977.

  6. castoreum, a secretion from its glands, was once used as medicine and was a major reason for hunting the animal.

  7. in the past its tail was considered a delicacy while its fur was widely used to make clothing and hats.

  8. a beaver pair stays together long term, and each animal occupies a wetland area of about thirty-two acres.

  9. kits are born after a gestation of about one hundred and six days, fully furred and with partially opened eyes.

  10. the first Italian dam built by beavers was documented in 2022 in Valtiberina, four years after the first sighting.

The quiz answers

The first one is the question printed in your book: here is the answer. The other four are extra.

Question 1 of 5★ this one is in your book

For how many years was the beaver absent from Italy before 2018?

Question 2 of 5

How much did the largest recorded European beaver weigh?

Question 3 of 5

Why was the beaver hunted almost to extinction?

Question 4 of 5

How many European beavers were counted in 2006?

Question 5 of 5

How long is the gestation period of the beaver?

Try it yourself

Experiment 1

Measure three feet with a tape measure: that is the maximum length of a beaver from its head to the tip of its tail.

Experiment 2

One acre is about the size of a football field. Imagine thirty-two fields side by side: that is the territory of a single beaver.

Experiment 3

Mark one hundred and six days on the calendar from today: that is how long a beaver pregnancy lasts until the kits are born.

Data from Wikidata (Q181191) and Wikipedia (Eurasian beaver).