Beaver Lodge Construction Squad | Attenborough | BBC Earth

[Music] a beaver one of the family that lives here in this lake at the foot of the Teton Mountains in Wyoming while beavers can get around perfectly well on land they're Most At Home In The Water where their webbed hind feet and large paddle-like tail make them powerful swimmers above and below the surface [Music] like muts beavers feed on all kinds of vegetation and eat wood as well as leaves and they're accomplished Engineers this Great Pond is entirely their own creation only a few years ago this shallow pebis stream flowed straight down the valley then a family of beavers moved in and built a dam the main body of it is built of Boulders on the downstream side it's been lined with logs some of them big and quite heavy and on this side it's been packed with mud and vegetation it's been built so accurately that it is is to within a few inches horizontal across its entire length of about 150 yards from one side to the other and the lake it's created stretches Upstream for almost a mile so important is their Dam to them that if they detect the slightest leak usually by hearing the sound of trickling water they start repair work immediately mud is needed as well as logs the repair team will labor away until the leak is fully [Applause] repaired maintaining the water at a high level brings the Beavers several advantages one of which is that it floods the surrounding woodlands and so enables them to swim in safety to their main source of food they increase the distance they can swim by digging channels that lead into the very heart of the Woodland here they can use their sharp and Sizer teeth to strip off the bark from a fallen tree trunk and nibble at it while still being close enough to water to slip away should a bear or a mountain lion turn up their network of channels also enables them to fery whole branches back to their [Music] Pond and there where the water is deepest they dive down and push each branch firmly into the mud at the bottom this is the beaver's fridge where the vegetation will keep fresh Through The Long Winter when the pond is covered with [Music] ice stocking the fridge takes a lot of work and the Beavers are at their busiest in autumn [Music] [Applause] [Music] at one side of the lake stands their Lodge a fortress built of branches and boulders that so strong that that not even a bear could break into it the only entrance is through tunnels that open underwater and the Beavers take refuge here whenever they are [Applause] alarmed that was a warning signal to say that danger was around let's to say me and now I may not see the Beavers for some time they can stay underwater for 5 minutes at a time up to 15 if they need to they can actually get back to the safety of their Lodge without putting their head above the surface for a single second most lodges have at least two different entrances by October winter is well underway but whereas mmats would now be hibernating the Beavers are still active and will remain that way throughout the winter even when the Pond ice is over completely they're still able to swim under the ice to get back and forth to their Lodge no one knew exactly what went on inside the lodge during winter so when the Beavers were away we installed a couple of infrar read cameras in order to find out a branch from the fridge is being brought back to the lodge for the whole family to feed on and another no wonder they don't need to hibernate with this ingenious setup the lodge is warm and safe even in midwinter and the only sign of activity in The Snug home beneath the snow is hot air rising from the vent at the top inside our cameras catch a glimpse of what at First Sight looks like a very small Beaver it's a muskrat there are a pair of them in here this is a new observation do the Beavers actually know in the Pit's Blackness that there are strangers among them we noticed that the muskrats regularly left the lodge to forage under the ice and on several occasions they returned a few minutes later with a load of fresh reads perhaps the muskrats are paying rent by regularly providing fresh bedding for the [Music] lodge maybe that is why the Beavers accept them and even allow them to share their food [Music] our infrared lights however are no longer welcome it seems