The common beaver (Latin name: Castorfiber) is a prominent representative of the order of rodents from the beaver family. It is the largest rodent in the world after the capybara.
Quite often, in colloquial speech mammals are called “beaver”, however, if you turn to S.I. Ozhegov’s dictionary, you can find out that this word is used to mean the fur of a rodent.
Appearance
The semi-aquatic animal reaches a length of 1.3 meters and a weight of up to 32 kg. Females are larger than males. Distinctive feature The mammal's tail is up to 30 cm long and has no hair. It resembles an oar and is covered with large scales and bristles.
The beaver's short, powerful hind legs are equipped with webbing between the toes. Large claws are curved and flat in shape. A remarkable fact is that the claw is forked on the second toe of the hind paw. With its help, mammals take care of their thick fur by combing it. The beaver is a very clean and tidy animal that regularly monitors the condition of its skin.
The beautiful fur of a beaver is considered valuable. It consists of coarse guard hairs, the down is very thick and silky. Color may have different shades brown in color, ranging from light chestnut to brown. Black representatives of beavers are found in nature. The rodent sheds from last days spring and before the beginning of winter.
The rodent has small ears that are almost invisible among the fur, but it has excellent hearing. Relatively small eyes are equipped with a transparent nictitating membrane, the so-called “third eyelid”. This device protects the animal’s organs of vision when diving under water, allowing it to see clearly in the aquatic environment.
The protrusions on the lips close behind powerful incisors protruding forward, which makes it possible to gnaw underwater.
In the area of the anus there are wen, paired glands and a beaver stream, which secretes a strong-smelling secretion - this is a red-brown, yellow-brown or dark soft mass. With its help, the beaver marks its territory and communicates.
Lifestyle
The banks of slow-flowing rivers, lakes, ponds and other calm bodies of water serve as a haven for rodents. Mammals avoid fast and wide rivers. In addition, they do not settle on the banks of shallow bodies of water, which can freeze to the very bottom in winter.
Representatives of the rodent order are excellent swimmers and divers. Air supplies are provided by large lungs and liver. A beaver can stay under water for up to 15 minutes, while covering a distance of more than 700 meters. However, on the shore the animals are very slow and clumsy.
Mammals live mainly in families consisting of an average of 5-8 individuals, including a pair of adult beavers: a male and a female, young rodents - the offspring of the current and previous years. There are also solitary beavers.
Rodents are monogamous animals; the female dominates the family. Once a year she gives birth to offspring. The mating season of beavers occurs at the end of January and lasts until the end of February, while mating itself takes place in water under a layer of ice.
Pregnancy lasts about three and a half months. A brood can range from one to six young, which are born half-blind, but well furred. Their average weight is 450 grams. After just a couple of days, little beavers are able to swim. When they reach three or four weeks of age, the transition to a plant-based diet occurs. But the female continues to feed the beaver cubs with her rich milk for up to three months. Rodents reach sexual maturity only at the age of two years.
An important condition for comfortable living of animals is the presence of deciduous trees and various shrubs on the banks. They also need large quantities aquatic herbaceous vegetation, which constitutes their main diet.
The area of coastal land occupied by a family can serve as a home for several subsequent generations. The length of a family plot on large bodies of water can reach almost 3 km. The length directly depends on the amount of food. Rodents do not go far from the aquatic environment.
If the animal is in danger, the rodent in the water slaps its flat tail on the surface of the water and dives. This behavior serves as an alarm signal for other family members.
Mammals are active at night. In summer, beavers can stay awake until six o'clock in the morning. When the period of stockpiling for the winter begins, in the fall, they remain active until 12 noon. During the cold season, beavers rarely come to the surface from their shelters. In severe frosts, animals do not get out at all.
It is worth noting that in natural habitats a rodent lives on average 15 years; in captivity this figure doubles. There are cases where beavers lived up to 35 years.
Dams and huts
A skilled engineer who creates structures that demonstrate not only the presence of a highly developed intellect, but also traces of a consciously working mind.
Beavers live in huts or burrows, the entrance to which is located under water for safety reasons. In steep banks, animals make burrows that resemble a labyrinth, which has up to five entrances. The ceiling and walls of the home are carefully leveled and compacted. The living space is made at a depth of no more than a meter, its height is 50 cm, and its height is about a meter. Required condition is that the floor should be 0.2 meters above the water level. When water rises, the rodent lifts the floor, scraping the necessary soil from the ceiling.
Huts are built by rodents in places where it is not possible to dig a hole. They are a pile of brushwood held together by earth and silt. The hut has a cone-shaped appearance and reaches a diameter of 12 meters and a height of three meters. The walls of such housing are carefully lubricated with silt and clay; the result of construction is an impregnable fortress with holes in the water and an air hole in the ceiling.
In reservoirs where there is a change in water level, rivers and streams, beavers build dams, better known as dams. They help regulate the water level so that the entrances to homes are not drained and become easily accessible to predators.
Dams are made from tree trunks, branches, fastened together with clay, silt and other available materials. natural materials, which rodents carry in their front paws or teeth. When the water flows rapidly, stones are actively used.
Rodents stick branches and trunks vertically into the bottom, strengthening the distance between them with branches, and filling the voids with stones, silt, and clay. As a basis for construction, beavers quite often use a tree that has fallen into the water, which is subsequently covered with building material. The shape of the structure depends on the speed of the current. If it is small, then the dam is straight; with a fast flow, the dam is curved towards it. Beavers carefully monitor the condition of the dam and, in case of destruction, repair it, eliminating the leak.
Let's delve into the topic "Rodents".
Today we are drawing a beaver.
The beaver is the largest representative of rodents on our continent. It is found on rivers and is famous for its dams. Several times I had the opportunity to see beavers in natural conditions. They say that touching a beaver again is dangerous, and even that it can cause a mortal wound, so I advise you - if you see a beaver in nature, leave it alone. But from afar, watching beavers build dams or frolic in the river is a pleasure.
Let's look at what this animal looks like and how to draw a beaver.
Drawing a beaver - side view
Our beaver is turned to the viewer with its left side. What's the first thing that catches your eye? I personally would note the hump. You and I have drawn a great variety of representatives of the animal kingdom, and have long noticed that in some of them the front part of the body is predominant, and in some the back part is predominant. What can you say about the beaver?
Of course the rear dominates, highest point The curve of his back is located at the level of the beginning of the thigh. Take away that hump and you get a completely different animal. The beaver's head is quite large, its muzzle is slightly elongated, but blunt. The neck is pronounced and wide. The legs are relatively small. In our training picture, the legs are positioned so that their structure is clear. The front ones, very small, were positioned by the animal as if for balance.
The hind legs are much longer and stronger than the front ones, they are in a half-bent state and there are membranes between the toes of the hind paws, the claws are very noticeable.
The beaver's tail is large and unusual, and is one of the most characteristic distinctive features. Wide, dark, large, flat, hairless, like an oar or a hot water bottle. It is adapted for swimming and is covered with horny plates.
The general features are ready, now let’s give credit to the details. The beaver's ears are small, and given its habitat, it's immediately clear why. Think, for example, what kind of ears a whale has that spends all its time in the water. Large ears would create an additional drag factor. And remember the theme “mole”. In nature, everything is interconnected! The beaver's eyes are also small, the corners big mouth as if pulled down. Beavers have long teeth that are constantly growing. They wear off all the time because the beaver gnaws hard wood and grow back all the time. But these teeth do not stick out from the mouth; we will not emphasize their presence.
Here is the first Beaver coloring picture:
And let's color it:
The beaver is covered with very beautiful thick fur; Wikipedia says that there are even black beavers. And beaver fur is very valuable. But we will not give offense to our beaver, who is already ready to dive into the water.
Drawing a sitting beaver
A sitting beaver looks like any rodent - squirrels, mice, rats sit in the same way - its back is steeply humped:
The paws under the fur are barely legible. The muzzle is blunt (in the sense of blunt-nosed), the bald tail is like an oar:
And this is the picture of a beaver:
Beaver coloring page - 2
And we will color it like this:
Handsome rodent!
Evgeny Novikov told you how to draw a beaver.
And I also want to add on my own behalf. Surely you have seen drawings of beavers “for children” - creepy faces with two spade-shaped teeth sticking out of the mouth for almost a kilometer. Like stylization and kind of cute humor. I have always felt bad for rodents - well, they have teeth that are convenient for their method of feeding, but they are not as terrible! So, specifically to restore justice, I found a photograph of a beaver’s head - the animal is like an animal, the mouth closes perfectly, the teeth do not get in the way.
Everyone knows that beavers live on rivers, or rather in creeks, and build dams there, blocking small streams and rivers. In appearance, this is a small animal, capable of chewing through the trunk of a large tree overnight to create its dam. And they block the river in order to increase its depth in the place where they live. They need this because beavers do not hibernate in winter and they need a deep reservoir that does not freeze to the bottom for the winter.
To draw a beaver step by step, we will, as always, use simple contours. Color picture The beaver was made by me on a tablet and you can use it to color the beaver with paints. But first let's draw a beaver with a simple pencil step by step.
1. Before drawing the beaver, make a marking grid
It will be very convenient for you to draw a beaver if you first make barely noticeable lines dividing the sheet of paper into squares. Divide the area of the drawing where the beaver will be depicted into eight squares. Then draw these simple initial outlines. The lines of the squares will help you draw them more accurately.
2. General outline of the beaver's body
Now you can trace the drawn circles and ovals and you will get the exact outline of the beaver’s body. Remove the marking lines with an eraser, just do not sweep away the crumbs with your hand, so as not to smear the pencil strokes; it is better to shake them off or blow them away.
3. Tail, paws and face of a beaver
At this step, the beaver will “receive” a tail, paws and a muzzle. This is easy to do if you exactly repeat my beaver drawing in this step.
4. The beaver drawing is almost finished
Carefully remove the internal contours from the beaver drawing, so as not to erase the “necessary” lines. Be especially careful when removing lines from the beaver's head. At this step, the beaver will already have almost all its outlines if you draw out the legs and tail in detail and make the general outline with a wavy line.
5. Finishing touches to the beaver picture
In any realistic drawing of an animal, it is important to pay attention to detail. Use a soft pencil to highlight the shaded areas and draw a pupil. Pay attention to the beaver's tail and face.
6. Realistic beaver fur pattern
Beavers have special water-resistant fur with hard hair. This feature of its fur can be depicted if the entire body of the beaver is “covered” with long wavy strokes.
7. Coloring a drawing of a beaver
The beaver in nature has quite a beautiful color and therefore better drawing At the last step, color with colored pencils. Use my picture of a beaver, made on graphics tablet, or search the Internet for a suitable photo.
Please note in the section " Coloring pages for children"There is an adapted version of the beaver drawing for coloring.
A hare doesn't always have fur white. It turns white only in winter, so as not to stand out in the snow and not attract the attention of foxes and wolves.
Outwardly, a rabbit is almost no different from a hare and is even somewhat similar to a beaver, and for sure, if you were able to draw a beaver correctly, you can draw a rabbit too.
Agree, the squirrel is somewhat reminiscent of a hare and a beaver. The front teeth are the same, the hind legs are larger than the front ones. But the beaver has a completely different tail and does not have such cute ears with tassels.
The lessons "How to draw a beaver" and "Drawing a hamster" are intended for children. I hope you will be able to draw these animals correctly the first time step by step.
Puss in Boots from a favorite fairy tale or a favorite cat, rabbits, hares often become characters in children's drawings. But in order to draw them correctly, let's learn a little how to first draw them step by step.
A drawing of a kitten with a simple pencil looks too faded, it is advisable to at least add a little color with colored pencils. Kittens are not rabbits and they come in the most unexpected colors.
Before drawing a beaver, dear radio listeners, welcome to the Russian language lesson, I will now give you all a lesson in proper speech. Remember, children:
— beaver is a living animal, and
— beaver- This is beaver fur.
Therefore, the phrase “a beaver gnaws a tree” is not a story about a cute animal, but about the adventures of a mad collar.
But let's not be boring! Agree, in fairy tales and cartoons “beaver” sounds much cooler than “beaver”. So let's be moderately illiterate, but in a good mood!
Let's draw a beaver, comrades.
Let's start with the beaver's head. The head looks like a slightly triangular egg. That is, an egg, but not too convex.
Let's draw a nose in the middle. Triangular, but the top line - see? - slightly convex.
Dash eyes...
...and this mouth, with a vertical stick.
The beaver's main weapon is its teeth!
The ears are a little more difficult. Just above the eyes we draw a straight line to the side...
...and draw two bananas from its end to the beginning: one narrower, the other wider. And we get a wonderful ear. Just a self-portrait of Van Gogh, if anyone knows.
Draw the beaver's second ear. By the way, when a beaver dives under water, its ears and nostrils are tightly closed with special valves.
The beaver's whiskers are not too spreading - cheerful and bristly.
We draw a beaver with a well-fed belly the size of its head.
Notice how the character's physique shows their personality. Our beaver is a hard worker, a master, all such a thorough and clever master - and a stocky figure suits him better.
A beaver has webbed feet.
And we’ll draw hands like all the other animals from our drawn zoo.
Let's draw a pointed and fairly wide tail; he will still be able to steer with this tail.
We draw scales with a mesh. By the way, because of the scales on its tail, the Catholic Church once decided to consider the beaver... a fish! Are you wondering why the church is even interested in beavers? And everything is very simple. Since it’s fish, it means you can eat it during Lent. The height of hypocrisy, in my opinion.
Let's draw the master beaver's tools, a hammer and a saw. It would be logical to draw an axe, but a hammer will also come in handy.
My stomach just begs to have something drawn on it. Let's draw a beaver belt with screwdrivers, and our forest jack-of-all-trades is ready!
P.S.: While reading about beavers, I came across an amazing story.
In 1878, Alexander II approved the coats of arms of Russian cities. From Irkutsk they sent a description of their old coat of arms, which depicts “BABR carrying a sable in his teeth.” The fact is that in the local dialect “babr” means “tiger”. But one of the St. Petersburg officials, unfamiliar with the dialect, decided that this was a mistake and corrected “babr” to “bobr”. “Beaver” remained in the approved description.
However, the beaver was never depicted on the Irkutsk coat of arms. It’s difficult for me to understand the artists’ logic, but they took a drawing of a tiger (babr), painted it black, gave it webbed paws and a beaver-like tail. The result was an animal unknown to science, which still adorns the coat of arms of Irkutsk.
Admire the babr before and after the 1878 mutation:
Everyone good mood, summer has come!
The beaver is a representative of the forces of evil in nature, possessing professional construction skills from birth. The meaning of his life is to cut down as many trees as possible and build a hut from them larger than that of any other rodent. In this lesson I will show you how to draw a beaver with a pencil. But first you should know that the name Beaver comes from the German word Biber (Don't let Justin be offended). Neither of them can sing, and besides, the rodent is beneficial to society.
And Beaver is so cool that:
- His image was placed on the five-cent coin in Canada and on the 3 Belarusian ruble bill;
- Can hold his breath underwater for as long as 15 minutes and swim 1 kilometer during this time;
- Can chew through and put wood on its shoulder blades in 5 minutes;
This is where my knowledge about beavers ends, so let’s get down to business.
How to draw a beaver with a pencil step by step
Step one. Draw a large circle in the center of the sheet. In the upper part we indicate the location of the rodent fashion. 
Step two. We draw his ears, small round eyes, nose. Let's show the legs on the body. 
Step three. Add fur throughout the body with light strokes. 
Step four. Let's erase the auxiliary lines with a leaf. We detail the paws and tail, add whiskers and shadows on the face. 
That's all, I wish everyone good luck and a good mood. I look forward to your comments and feedback. And also write to me what other rodents you should draw, you can do this on
