Gregg Doyle, age 12, of Waterville, New York, for his question:
Can beavers live to be 30 years old?
The beaver's life is crowded with sensible chores and dutiful family co operation. Such a model character deserves to live a century but, as a rule, he lives no longer than 10 or 12 years. The oldest beavers on record have lived to celebrate no more than 19 or 20 birthdays.
A young beaver is born on an island centered in the family pond. The island is a high and dry lodge roofed over with a sturdy dome of sticks and stones expertly patted together with mud. The cozy floor is strewn with soft grasses and finely shredded bark and junior shares his island lodge with perhaps seven other beaver kittens. For the first month of life, their only visitor is their big, warm mother who lovingly feeds them, washes them and combs their furry coats. The only door to the lodge is a hole in the living room floor that leads to an underwater tunnel.
When junior is about a month old, Mrs. Beaver coaxes him down the dark, wet tunnel and out into the family pond. One by one, the roly poly beaver kittens are taught to swim. And one by one, the youngsters meet the other members of the family. They meet their large, shaggy father, maybe several aunts and uncles and perhaps half a dozen teenage brothers and sisters. The teenagers were born last season and papa took them away for a few weeks, leaving the family lodge for mother and her new kittens.
Through the summer, junior learns the arts and skills of beavercraft. He learns by co operating with other beavers, young and old, in the building of dams and canals, lodges and tunnels. With a partner, he fells trees and cuts the wood into logs. He helps to gather and store piles of twigs for next winter's food. And next spring, papa takes him to a new home while mama uses the lodge for her next litter of kittens.
Junior's education takes two years. Then he leaves home and looks around the neighboring colony of beavers for a wife. He may build a home of his own but, as a rule, he repairs and occupies a vacant lodge in one of the nearby beaver ponds. Season by season, he works busily away with the older beavers and instructs the younger beavers. And each year he grows bigger. At the age of 10, he may be 30 inches long plus 12 inches of flat, scaly tail and most likely he is the oldest beaver in the colony.
As he grows older, his chances of survival decrease. He may be too slow to run from a falling log, too tired to escape a hungry fox. Life in the wilds is risky and the old timer rarely lives to celebrate his 12th birthday. However, he may live much longer in protected surroundings. In captivity, beavers have been known to live 19 or 20 years but Andy has never heard of a beaver living to the age of 30.
Most animals born in the wilds, sad to say, never live long enough to become parents. They are surrounded by hungry enemies and life is full of risks. The young ones often meet with fatal accidents before they learn to cope with the ways of the wild. Those that grow up are the smart ones and the lucky ones. But even adult wild animals rarely die of old age. An old timer slows down and, in a moment of carelessness, he usually meets some fatal accident long before the end of his natural life span.