Beavers love to eat the bark and leaves from the trees that they fell. Their favorite trees are aspens but they will also eat birch, alder, willow, and mountain maple. They usually prefer trees between 2-6 inches in diameter. With the leftover wood they create dams and lodges. A pair of beavers takes down about 400 trees per year.
Beavers seem to keep the same mate for life.
They mate between January and February and the babies or kits are born 4 months later. The kits weigh about 1 pound each and there may be anywhere from 1 to 8 kits in a litter. The kits stay with their parents for 2 years until a new litter is born. The kits learn to swim in the lodge within 30 minutes after they are born. Beavers change the landscape with the dams they build.