Beavers live throughout North American wetlands and waterways. They’re common in Georgia wherever they can find the right place to call home. They love year-round water flow; therefore, streams, lakes, ponds, wetlands, and low-lying land or swamps are the places to find them. Beavers can be found in ditches, sewage ponds, and urban areas.
Beavers are North America’s largest rodents, and their cousin the Eurasian beaver or European beaver is the second largest in the world after capybaras. The capybara, also called carpincho or water hog, is the largest living rodent and they are a semiaquatic mammal of Central and South America. Beavers are semiaquatic, living both on land and in water. They use their broad, flat tails as rudders while swimming, and signaling by slapping the water. Click here to watch this neat video showing the beavers in action:
Beavers are most known for building dams to block up streams, and for creating their own small lakes and ponds. They build homes or “lodges” with underwater entrances to protect them from predators in the winter. This behavior is incredibly important in Georgia. The ponds and wetlands they create provide habitat for numerous plants and animals. They also serve as filters that allow sediment to settle out of the water. For landowners, the ponds can provide hunting and fishing opportunities.
In urban areas, beavers can be especially troubling. They create wetlands where humans have not planned for them to be. The beavers’ hard work can flood areas and create property damage. Furthermore, beavers chew on just about any tree or plant, which causes additional damage and loss of property.
You may want to control your beaver problem with traps or more direct means. Sometimes fencing can work, as well as adjusting drainage to make your property uninteresting. Merely breaking up dams rarely works, as the industrious animals will likely have it repaired within days. Regardless of how you view beavers, they are certainly one of nature’s busiest residents.
