#beaver behavior

[w0rmwood-uwu]

i wish i could digest cellulose so bad

[w0rmwood-uwu]

sometimes i realize there are bite marks on my bedframe then remember that i sometimes gnaw on my bedframe

[egberts]

does anyone else who has been a lifelong nailbiter have one front tooth that's shorter than the other

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

Are beavers born knowing how to build dams? How much of it is innate vs learned behavior?

I really struggled to find an answer for this one! There isn't really anything I could find about it in published information.

I asked literally the only person I know who works with beaver, and they said as far as they know, the instinct to build dams is innate. They've seen captive-born and captive-raised beaver start building dams if they hear running water.

That doesn't mean they're good at it, though... apparently making a functional dam takes some practice. As a baby, their current beaver would just pick up a stick and shove it against the wall, so of course it would fall to the ground. As he got older he started completely damming up the entrance hole into his lodge and make keepers put in an impressive amount of work to take it apart!