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 28 just too much DHJanzen100901.jpg high resolution
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Beaver are not always successful in cutting down the trees they start. Such a sight as this is most common in places where a beaver colony is exhausting its food supply and presumably starving animals are more inclined to take on an impossible task (this tree is about 20 inches in diameter). Incidentally, this river bank on the Mississippi River is a standard kind of place for a beaver to make a bank den by tunneling into the bank at a point well below the water line, and then digging upward to create a chamber/nest in inside the bank. Food is then stored in the deeper water of the slow-flowing river in front of the bank. Such bank dens are sometimes revealed by the beaver coming out on the bank and piling yet more sticks and mud on top of the bank, as though it is not satisfied with the thickness of the roof. |
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