Eurasian Beaver
| Class: Mammalia:
Mammals |
Diet: Plants |
| Order:
Rodentia: Rodents |
| Size: 73
cm - 1.3 m (28 3/4 in - 4 1/4 ft), tail: 21 - 30 cm (8 1/4 - 11 3/4 in) |
| Family: Castoridae:
Beavers |
Conservation Status:
Non-threatened |
| Scientific Name:
Castor fiber |
Habitat: rivers,
lakes, with wooded banks |
| Range:
Now only in parts of Scandinavia, Poland, France, Southern Germany, Austria
and Russia |
 The
largest European rodent, the Eurasian beaver has the same habits and much
the same appearance as the American beaver, and they are considered by
some experts to be only one species. Like its American counterpart, this
beaver builds complex dams and lodges but, where conditions are right,
may simply dig a burrow in the riverbank which it enters underwater. It
feeds on bark and twigs in the winter and on all kinds of vegetation in
summer. Beavers are monogamous animals, and females are believed
to mate for life: the male may mate with females other than his partner.
Pairs produce litters of up to 8, usually 2 to 4, young in the spring.
  
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