Cape Breton's Magazine

lodge • if he caught the kits while the adults were away he'd make short work of them. The full-grown beaver is bigger and bulkier but he's slower and not designed for fighting. The beaver, if he misses the bite for the throat, generally tries to get a hold somev*iere and then drag the animal into the water and see who can hold its breath the longest. The beaver wins. But normally his first attempt is to get away. He's not a fighter. They would eat a lot of different kinds of plants in the spring after eating no? thing but bark all winter • and it was pret? ty obvious when they liked something. Closed their eyes and munch away and stuff as much in their mouths as they could • such as white violets or some terns. But when they'd eat something like alder bark- that's their main substitute here for pop? lar • they definitely would pass on to some? thing else. They take it easy the early part of the summer. There's good food everywhere. Most kinds of plant material and vegetation are fine food so they en? joy it • water lilies, violets, raspberry canes in the spring. The beaver here ate quite a few ferns, and also the algae scum off the surface of the pond. There was a beaver in Freshwater Pond who had a real passion for the flowers of water lilies. But later on towards the end of summer they start working to get a winter supply of food in. They'll bring sticks, fell trees, cut them up into pieces that are manageable and bring them down to the pond and sink them in the txjttom of the pond in front of the lodges. They have to be sunk. If they were left floating they would freeze into the ice • so they sink them, stick them into the bottom, occsisionally put rocks on them, pile more wood on top • and they build up a tremendous pile which may be several feet across and 10 or 15 feet long and ex? tending from the bottom to the surface of the pond. And they'll go to that all winter. They'll scrape off the hard bark and eat the soft inner bark • and that'll be their nourishment for the winter. (Do they eat fish?) No. Strictly plants. (Do families interbreed or do they seek a mate elsewhere?) They definitely seek it elsewhere. They are not allowed to stay within the colony and breed. Two paired beaver mate for life. Their young stay with them the first year and the one-year old beavers also stay. But as soon as a beaver turns two years old, he is expelled from the pond. If they won't go they are forceably made to go. Usually they go be? cause a beaver that's two years old, especially in the spring, has a tremendous Ladies and Children's Wear nst 314 Charlotte Street SYDNBT Windows9 Doors, Awnings, Railings, Siding Modern Aluminum Products 'itelton Street, Sydner 562-1104 / 562-1105 Cards for All Occasions The Card Shoppe Sydney Shopping Centre -?? ' 12ofour M Ro'L most helpful ' CERTIFIED services SERVICE i'''' convenient package to help you keep those promises you ve made to yoursel?? ROYAL BANK serving the Atlantic Provinces Now 210 Years Old ROBIN, JONES & WHITMAN, LIMITED Cheticamp, N.S* 224-2022 PHARMACY operated by Mansons Drugs Ltd. OLD AS 1903: siill offering the same old fashion quality service to Cape Breton. NEW AS 1977: Offering Drug Plans, Charge Cards, Delivery, Mail-Order' and roost important • a Hearty Ihank You for shopping Vtoolco Pharmacy, where priceis are low enough to really make a difference* 74 YEARS OP SBRVICB