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The beaver has many awesome adaptations that help it survive. First, it makes and rubs an oil on its thick fur that makes the fur waterproof. This in turn keeps its underfur dry and warm helping it survive in the super cold snowmelt water. The beaver has sharp continually growing front teeth that help it chew down trees for food and building materials for dams and lodges. Beavers are one of the largest rodents, which allows them to cut down and drag larger trees and branches. It has webbed hind feet and sharp clawed front feet to help it swim quickly and dig mud up for the dam and lodge. The beaver's round paddled tail help it balance and help it warn others of danger. It has an extra see-through protective eyelid to protect its eyes and to see underwater. Beavers are expert builders and can create dams to make ponds and large mounds of sticks and mud for a lodge. The beaver has many adaptations that make it a master builder and at home in an underwater environment.
The beaver plays an important role in keeping mountain habitats or life zones healthy. The beavers create dams out of mud, sticks, and plants. The dams create ponds and wetlands that many other animals make their homes, like moose, fish, muskrats, ducks, and more. More importantly, they help slow down and collect the rapid summer snow melt off. This provides animals with lots of water after much of the snow has melted. It also collects a lot of the dirt, sticks, and other debris floating down the streams. This cleans the water flowing down from their ponds and prevents too much erosion. Beavers also chew down lots of trees creating large open areas for new plants to grow and creating natural fire breaks in the forest.
In the mid 1800's, beaver skin hats became popular and many beavers were killed for their fur. Mountain men and native americans would hunt and trap them to sell and trade their furs at local trading posts. Just like most fashion, people's tastes changed and the beaver hats were no longer popular. However, so many beavers were killed for their furs that large populations of them were killed throughout the United States. During mining booms most every animal around the boomtowns were hunted out for food, including beavers. In addition, the chemicals used to separate gold and silver from the rocks polluted streams and rivers killing even more wetland creatures. Not that long ago, the beaver was on the brink of extinction in Colorado. Over time the numbers of beavers have increased and stabilized. Today, increased human development into the mountains is coming more and more into conflict with increasing beaver populations. The beavers can slightly change the flow of water and turn mountain meadows into wetlands. The beavers can chew down many trees turning large beautiful forested areas into large treeless open areas. Too few beavers is especially bad for the environment. But too many beavers can be a problem also.
Sources of information and to find more information: Nature Works, CO Div of Wildlife, Oregon Zoo
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