NORTH AMERICAN BEAVER

The beaver is not your typical rodent. It’s the largest one on the continent, and the only one that can cut down mature trees . Beavers use the timber to build large, elaborate nests—dome-shaped lodges with underwater entrances—inside ponds. If there is no pond, beavers will create one by building a dam to block a stream. The resulting moat around their lodges keeps wolves, coyotes and other predators at bay.