One real story. The costs for spring hunting allowances have increased. A man from region takes the cheapest pass for hunting woodcock. Game manager asks him , do you know at least who the woodcock is ? Of course, he sais, it swims, nibbles the trees.

   No doubt, going to hunt someone  one  needs  to know  how this someone looks like. Lets analyse the beavers’ biology.

   Many of you have seen rats. So, the beavers are very much alike them, just a little bit larger. Besides they belong to the same order named “rodents”. The beaver’s length can reach one meter and even more. The average weight varies from 16 to 25 kg. One can meet even larger beaver though. In case you have reliable video recorded information about the beaver weighting over 35 kg, please, send it and you’ll become a record-holder. I’ve never personally met a beaver of such a weight though I’ve seen not a few of them. As for the talks such as I’ve got a beaver about 50 kg so it s the same story as about the wood grouse weighting 12 kg. Many people get them but no one can prove it.

  The beaver’s weight depends on it’s place of inhabitance. In the basins with stagnant water and plenty of feeding the beavers are able to reach greater weight. In the mountain rivers with poor feeding base their weight will be smaller. Mentioning the water basins, I’d like to sharpen your attention at the shape of the beaver’s tail. In the basins with little or no water flow the beaver’s “shovel” is shorter and wider. In the rivers with quick water flow it is narrower and longer. This is connected, first of all, with the necessity to resist the water flow.

   All in all, the whole shape of the beaver’s body is to the most adopted to the swimming in and under water. An oblong head, short ears, little eyes, webbed paws ! Only back paws, though. But is there any other rat, beside a beaver, with webs, even  only at the back paws? That’s it, beaver is a unique creature in its’ own way.

   Like all other rats beaver prefers living in the burrows. But there are some other kinds of the beavers’  habitations­ – lodges and semi-lodges. This will be the topic of the following special articles devoted to the beavers’ living places.

   The beavers’ front paws are short, with rather sharp claws. The beaver singled out here as well. Its’ front paws’ construction resembles that of the human beings and primates, that is, the thumb is opposed to all the other digits. This allows it to hold the branches and sticks and to dig the holes and channels, as well.

   The fur of the beaver is soft and silky, particularly that of the young animals. Adult beavers’   top  hair is a bit harder, but, on the whole, the  beaver’s hide doesn’t lose its’ attractiveness. Nowadays they pull out the top hair to get the soft and silky hide that is used in producing of different garments. I am sure to cover the topics of manufacturing and initial processing of the hide  as well as the ways and methods of producing the fur garments in the next articles.

   The colour of the fur varies from sandy- yellow to resinous-black, while there can be both red and black beavers in the same family. I must add again, that earlier the price of the hide used to depend on the colour of the beaver’s fur, the same with the sable fur – the darker the more expensive, but nowadays with the modern ways of manufacturing and painting it doesn’t matter much.                            

   I’ve nearly forgotten, according to the durability scale, the beaver’s fur shares the first place with the otter’s. What the durability is and how it can be judged, read in the next articles.

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