If a kit falls into a floor entrance before it is ready to swim, the father is often the one to rescue it with a nudge back to the safety of the lodge chamber. Beavers are the largest rodents in North America. A fairly recent ancestor of the beaver, living about two million years ago, was a giant species the size of an American black bear. Because of the quality of their pelts, beavers were nearly exterminated from the United States by unregulated fur harvests in the 1800s. Their populations have recovered and stabilized as a result of trapping restrictions and reintroduction into suitable habitat.
Beavers are present in all of Maine.
They feed at night, preferring aspens, poplars, willows, alders and birches less than fifteen years old. They may be active in daytime in remote areas. In spring and summer they eat herbaceous plants such as sedges, pond lily roots and bulrushes instead of their winter diet of bark. By instinct, beavers dam flowing water and raise water levels to make a good habitat for themselves. They use slowly flowing brooks, streams or rivers that usually are bordered by woodlands.