KNOWLEDGE BASE

This paper looks at how beavers interact with palsas: raised mounds of ice, peat, and soil found in subarctic and Arctic areas. It is shown that beavers, through their dams and flooding impacts, influence the creation and degradation of these features. The fate of palsas are shown to not be related to air temperatures, which means that they can't be used as a proxy for monitoring the local climate, as previous studies had suggested.

In this paper, growth rings on beavers' incisors were studied. These rings reflect how fast the teeth grow. 40 beavers' teeth were studied and it was found that upper incisors grew more slowly during late summer and autumn. Lower incisors had a weaker seasonal trend. Daily growth patterns varied to some extent with daily temperature and precipitation, but upper incisors' growth could potentially help estimate the season of death in fossil beavers. Please note, this resource is not open-access.

This study explored how the depth and width of waterways influence Swedish beavers' behaviour with respect to storing food for winter in a space called a cache. Specifically, they report on how the waterway's size affects whether the beavers made caches at all and, if they did, whether the size of the waterway affected when they started making the cache or the cache's overall size. The findings suggest that beavers can adapt their winter survival strategy and that the characteristics of the waterway are only part of what determines their behaviour.

In this paper, the author argues that, in Western Europe, perceptions of 'nature' and 'rurality' are changing. People are understanding nature, the countryside, and the line between wild and domestic animals in a different way. The author argues that the re-introduction of wild species - such as beavers and wolves - is one of the reasons why. Other reasons include the protection of rare breeds of farm animals. Please note, this resource is not open-access.

When beavers occupy roadside areas, they can cause water damage to the roads. This study sought to understand what river features influenced a beaver's decision to occupy a roadside area in New York State, USA. They found that availability of vegetation, stream gradient, and stream width were key features. They suggest that doing a beaver habitat assessment may be useful when designing new roads. Please note, this resource is not open-access.