BEAVEK HABITS, BEAVER CONTEOL, AND BEAVER FARMING. 5 



dangers. Patience, persistence, strength, and industry are more im- 

 portant factors in their work than quick wit or versatility. 



DISPOSITION. 



Among themselves beavers are generally friendly and sociable, 

 at least in their own family and colony. The young are especially 

 playful and affectionate with each other and with anyone so fortu- 

 nate as to win their confidence. Strangers, whether beaver or human, 

 are likely to be treated as enemies, and a strange beaver placed in 

 an inclosure with others is sometimes attacked and even killed. The 

 common belief that the young when 2 years old are driven away from 

 the colony is quite likely without foundation. The dispersal of a 

 colony is probably due to a decrease in the easily accessible food 



supply. 



^ HABITS. 



SWIMMING. 



Both the form and the anatomy of beavers show the adaptation 

 of the animals to life in the water rather than on land. They are 

 jDOwerful, easy, and graceful swimmers, though ordinarily not rapid, 

 merely paddling along with the large webbed hind feet; but when 

 alarmed they can swim under water at great speed, apparently as 

 fast as an otter or seal and with a somewhat similar undulatory 

 motion of body and tail, the tail appearing to be effective as a high- 

 speed propeller. 



The question, Why is a beaver's tail flat and wide? is often asked, 

 but it is only necessary to see it in use, tilted up, steering one way 

 or the other, or striking downward as the animal dives from the 

 surface, to understand its aquatic use. Especially is its full width 

 and steering power taxed to its limit as the beaver swims, tuglike, 

 by the side of a pole or log which it is towing to the house, dam, 

 or food cache, with only the tail thrown out sideways to keep from 

 progressing in circles. On land the tail has other uses, but in the 

 water it serves variously as rudder, propeller, and signal gun, by 

 giving loud slaps on the surface of the water for warnings to friends 

 or enemies. 



In diving, beavers simply swim downward or in any direction 

 under water. They swim long distances and remain submerged 

 commonly for four or five minutes at a time, but much longer if 

 alarmed, swimming half a mile or more without appearing at the 

 surface. In winter, under heavy ice and mainly under water, they 

 move about from the house or bank den to the food cache or feed- 

 ing grounds on the bottoms or banks of the ponds or streams, getting 

 air from the bubbles under the ice, from air-filled chambers, or 

 through air holes kept open to the surface. 



