01x07 - American Beaver

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Lumberjack.

Surveyor.

Builder.

Engineer.

It's all in a day's

work for a beaver.

They've got the tools and the

know-how to create a brand new

ecosystem one log at a time.

When they build, everyone

shares the reward.

A beaver pond is

a wildlife magnet.

It's the place to find a mate

and raise a family, to hunt,

or fight for survival.

In the center of the action,

the engineer keeps the

whole thing running.

Building a dam?

That's just part

of the job.

These guys will

face down predators,

voyage in to the

unknown, and battle the

full force of nature.

All to create their

little slice of paradise.

These are the Teton Mountains

in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

At their base lies a

large river valley,

a place the American

beaver calls home.

They're cousins of

mice and squirrels,

but your 12-pound cat wouldn't

want to chase down these

50-pound fur ba*ls.

It's hard to find an animal

on Earth that resembles them.

They're a bit like an

oversized woodchuck that

borrowed spare parts

from other animals.

Their front paws are

five-fingered and nimble,

like a raccoon's, while

their back feet are webbed,

like a duck's, for swimming.

Their paddle tail could have

been borrowed from a platypus,

but without the fur.

And their teeth, their

most prized possession,

are like giant

rabbit incisors.

Put that all together,

and you have one mean,

engineering machine.

In just five years, these

beavers turned a small forest

stream into what's now called

Willow Pond, a vast,

deep, diverse, wetland.

All from a few

rocks, twigs and mud.

As spring arrives, the

water attracts an entire

cast of characters.

Year after year, they count

on the beaver pond like

they count on spring itself.

Sandhill cranes arrive

from Mexico along with

white pelicans.

Canada geese and goldeneye

ducks may have only traveled

a few miles.

They need quiet water and

good cover for nesting,

and this beaver

pond provides both.

For a cow moose, the willows

provide more than cover.

The early spring buds are a

welcome relief after a winter

eating nothing but dry twigs.

The beaver's pond is the most

happening place in the valley,

bringing about

animals of all types.

But with all the

hustle and bustle,

predators are eager to

join the party as well.

A mother grizzly and her three

cubs have just woken up from

a six-month slumber.

They're hungry.

And they'll eat anything

they can get their paws on,

including a plump,

North American beaver.

The father beaver senses

danger and heads straight for

the deepest, and safest,

part of the pond.

He can easily out-swim a bear.

Or hide in the murky water,

holding his breath for

up to 15 minutes.

But mother must stay in

the lodge with her young.

It's a dangerous move.

The bears know

there's a meal inside.

But even a 600-pound

predator doesn't crush this

brilliantly

engineered structure.

Maybe the bears thought the

beavers were too much work.

Or they're still groggy

from a long winter's nap.

Either way, mom settles

instead for the quick,

easy delicacy, of

a rotten trout.

Bear cubs learn to hunt

by watching their mothers.

And each little victory

deserves a celebration.

While they get valuable

training from mom,

there's still plenty

of time for play.

Believe it or not,

the grizzly bear,

one of the top

predators in the forest,

isn't the most serious threat

to the beavers in springtime.

It's the sudden,

unpredictable things.

Six months' worth of

snow melts in the

span of a few weeks.

Trickles of water

become torrents.

The tiny runoff stream that

feeds the Willow Pond swells

into a raging river.

And it smashes the

beaver dam to pieces.

It's washed downstream

in an instant.

The adults swim against

the raging current,

but young beavers

aren't nearly as strong.

One of the year-old kits has

strayed from the lodge at

the wrong time.

If he gets swept away, he

could be lost or injured in

the rocky stream.

Luckily, mom comes

to the rescue.

With the worst over, the

beavers assess the damage.

With the dam gone,

their pond is draining,

weeks of hard work washed

away in an instant.

It's not just the beavers

who are losing their home.

An entire community

is counting on them

to save this pond.

Luckily, this is what

beavers were born to do.

The sound of running water

triggers an obsessive

desire to build.

And once again, the

beavers spring into action.

Step one, gather supplies.

Armed with nothing more than

a great set of incisors,

Mother Beaver gets

to lumberjacking.

Those teeth of hers

never stop growing.

If she doesn't wear

them down every day,

they'd soon outgrow her head.

But when you spend as much

time chewing through wood as

she does, that's

not a problem.

There's no time for sitting

around on one's tail.

This is a whole

family affair.

Mother puts a stick in place,

while father patches holes

with debris gathered

from the bottom and

carried any way he can.

Within a week, they've got

the water back under control.

They've saved their pond.

Despite the scare, their

two-year-old son has gotten

crucial on-the-job training.

And he's going to need it.

His mother is about to

give birth to a new litter.

Their house might

be well constructed,

but it's no mansion.

The two year old is

about to get the boot.

He must set off and

build a pond of his own.

It's not as easy as

finding a place next door.

The closest real estate

is already claimed.

Other beavers, probably

his older siblings,

have already established

colonies nearby.

This beaver must venture

out even further,

into the unknown.

And it's dangerous.

There will be predators

and little protection.

When he finds an

unoccupied building site,

he'll have to engineer a pond

of his own, all from scratch,

and all before

winter comes again.

This is a journey that many

young beavers do not survive.

As summer approaches, the

valley erupts with life.

The beavers have created

the perfect place to raise a

family, and it attracts

all walks of life.

A mother moose brings her

two-week-old calf out of the

forest, to the pond's

edge for a drink.

While some swans use

the pond for nesting.

And a mother fox sees it as a

perfect hunting ground to help

feed her growing young.

The kits learn to hunt

by watching their mother,

and by simply

roughhousing around.

They don't seem to have

a worry in the world.

Others don't

have it so easy.

The two-year old is still

on a house-hunting mission.

He's only two miles from the

Willow Pond where he was born.

But to a beaver,

that's an epic journey.

Finally, he discovers a

promising piece of property.

And it just happens to have

a special smell about it.

There's a female

nearby, a single female.

He's hit the jackpot.

Beavers aren't

much for romance.

For this young couple,

attraction is a matter

of convenience.

She's the only

available female around,

and he's the only male.

That's good enough for them.

Now, it's time to

get back to work,

and do what beavers

do best, build a dam.

Starting the project

from scratch,

the pair musters

every skill.

Engineer, woodcutter,

carpenter.

Even stone mason.

First comes their foundation,

a bit of brush they lay on

the bottom of the stream.

And then, a few

thoughtfully placed stones

to anchor it in place.

Finally, they add layers

of debris and wood.

Holes are patched with

mud, bulldozed into place.

A basic dam takes shape,

with layers of

branches,

rocks,

logs, and debris.

Arranged in a triangle.

As the water level rises,

the beavers add more layers,

making the dam

higher and wider.

After a month, their 40-foot

dam is finally complete.

And their pond begins to grow.

The first trees are cleared,

the stream is blocked,

and the land floods.

They've single-handedly

transformed an entire

landscape, no cement, chainsaws

or bulldozers required.

They've just passed the first

big test of adulthood,

they built a dam

and filled a pond.

But a beavers'

work is never done.

Their next house project?

Their lake-side

beaver lodge.

Back at Willow Pond,

Mom and Dad are on

food-shuttling duty.

They gather up the family

favorites, alder, cottonwood,

aspen and willow, then float

branch after tasty branch down

the pond to the lodge.

The kits are impatient

eating machines,

waiting for their food

delivery and then squabbling

over the biggest twig.

Mom and Dad attempt to sneak

in a snack of their own.

They might only get the

small leftover twigs,

but nothing beats a little

crunchy bark, and some soft,

pulpy wood.

They have their

fast-food technique down.

Nimble forepaws spin a small

branch like corn on the cob,

while their sharp teeth

strip off the tasty bits.

As picky as they are, beavers

can pack away two pounds of

wood every day.

That's quite a

challenge for an animal

that lives under water,

but whose food grows on land.

And even worse, they've cut

down all of the trees around

them for their

building projects!

But leave it to the beavers to

get creative and use a little

animal awesomeness.

If you can't bring the

trees to the water's edge,

why not bring the

water to the trees?

The beavers, turned

hydro-engineers,

build an entire canal system.

Their short runs out of the

water have already worn paths

in the dirt.

Now all they have to do is

a little extra excavation.

And it fills with water.

Problem solved.

Mother and father beaver

continue to dredge their

channels, depositing the mud

on the banks, all summer long.

Their hard work pays off, they

create an entire network of

waterways that reach out like

fingers from the main pond.

They're the telltale mark

of an older beaver pond,

stretching as far as 750 feet

into the surrounding forest.

This way, they always have

a watery escape route.

And it's definitely easier

to move branches by floating

them, rather than dragging.

Especially when you need

to stockpile loads of

branches for winter.

And time is running out.

Cold weather is

coming in a hurry.

A chilly wind sweeps

down from the mountains,

setting the aspens and

cottonwoods ablaze.

At their brand

new beaver pond,

the young couple can

sense the change.

They have their dam, but they

quickly need to build their

safe, warm shelter,

their beaver lodge.

It's time to move

some timber, ASAP.

Beavers' teeth make

remarkable chainsaws.

This male can gnaw his way

through a six-inch tree trunk

in under an hour.

But lumberjacking

is dangerous work.

Every now and then, a beaver

will get crushed by a falling

tree, so this is

a one-beaver job.

His mate knows to stay

clear until he's through.

It's round-the-clock work.

Beavers are mostly nocturnal,

so working the night shift is

no problem, the young male

just keeps on chomping.

Every few bites, he pauses and

listens for creaks and snaps.

That way, he knows

when to dive for cover.

Now the female joins in to

help cut up the tree in to

logs, like a mobile sawmill.

The two lumberjacks

strip off the branches,

and float the logs down

the pond to the job site.

Morning comes and

they're still working.

You could coin their

style "eco-friendly chic,"

piling sticks and brush

high into a free-form mound.

Then, they gnaw and dig

out the inside into an

earthen cavern,

complete with

rooms and even entryways.

A layer of mud mortar

is the finishing touch,

to hold it together

and seal out the cold.

Over the course of a week,

they've built a cozy home,

four feet high, with

walls two feet thick,

and a plush interior any

beaver would long for.

The entrances sit

below water level.

They open into an entryway

for drying off and eating.

Above that sits the

main living room,

vented with a chimney to

keep it from overheating.

It's a castle built for a

beaver, and just in time.

Winter has arrived.

When snow comes

to Jackson Hole,

it blankets the

valley for six months.

Much of the Willow

Pond freezes solid.

But in the beaver lodge,

things are pretty cozy.

Thick walls keep out the cold.

And a layer of body

fat, especially in

their bare tails,

does the rest.

Mostly, they sleep.

When hunger strikes, they can

swim to their pantry and back

in a few seconds.

They never need to

set foot outside.

Except that is, if you're a

young beaver trying to make it

through your first

winter on your own.

Outside, blizzards

whip the snow into

ten-foot drifts and

temperatures can plunge

to 40 degrees below zero.

Most animals just

have to tough it out.

Bison use their heads like

plows to reach clumps of grass

buried under the snow.

Moose try to get by on

the dry twigs of willow

and other trees.

And elk root up plant shoots

by pawing through the snow

with their hooves.

But a certain young and

inexperienced beaver couple

didn't store enough

food for the winter.

Their pantry is empty.

Holes in the deep snow mean

someone has snuck out of the

lodge, when he shouldn't have.

It's the young male.

Hunger drives him out to face

the full blast of winter.

All of a beaver's hard work

and preparation is to avoid

a moment like this.

He's more of a swimmer

than a snowplow.

But lucky for him, he

stumbles on a small sapling.

It'll hold them over

for another day,

but spring is a long way

off, and he must continue

the brutal hunt.

The wind just gets colder,

and the snow deeper.

Each day he must

travel further from

home into the forest.

This time he stumbles upon a

tree he had tried to cut down

in the fall, but it got

hung up on a pine tree.

Now, it might be

his only hope.

He's a good lumberjack,

but no climber.

He tries to skate across

the frozen trunk to reach

the edible twigs.

Ten feet up,

success slips away.

But determined, his

perseverance finally pays off.

Now, it's a waiting game.

With a few sticks a day, and

their fat reserves vanishing,

the pair must hang on until

the end of winter comes.

At long last, there's

a sign of relief.

Sunshine and warmth

arrive at last.

The snow won't

vanish overnight,

but the worst is over.

The beaver family at

Willow Pond gets

back to the grind,

making repairs,

building additions,

and saying goodbye to another

set of young ones as they set

off into the world.

The pond will empty, the large

aspens and cottonwoods will

grow back, and the

cycle can begin again.

Upstream at the new pond, the

young couple finally ventures

into an unfrozen world

after surviving their

first winter alone.

On a chilly March

morning, they reaffirm

their special bond.

This year, they'll be ready

to have kits of their own.

Continuing to be the

busy beavers they are,

and awesome animal engineers,

they'll build upon the work

they began last year.

Creating an entire

ecosystem, for a whole

river valley of creatures.