File:Flickr - law keven - Praying for a Sunny Weekend.....(Happy Furry Friday.-O)).jpg

Beaver - Wildwood, Kent, England - Sunday August 3rd 2008. Click here to see the Larger image

Nice Beaver....lol...(A quote from the Naked gun movies..:O)))))

Another shot that would have been better had the weather been better, or if I had brought my tripod....It was sooooooo dark that taking this hand held in the gloom of the afternoon caused a little camera shake...:O(( Out of the many shots I took this was the best of a bad bunch..Oh well, lets hope the weather is better this weekend...you never know...lol..:O)) Anyhooo...what ever the weather..I hope you all have a fabulous weekend..:O))

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ~ Beavers are semi-aquatic rodents native to North America and Europe. They are the only extant members of the family Castoridae, which contains a single genus, Castor. Genetic research has shown the European and North American beaver populations to be distinct species and that hybridization is unlikely.

Beavers are best known for their natural trait of building dams in rivers and streams, and building their homes (known as beaver lodges) in the resulting pond. They are the second-largest rodent in the world (after the capybara).

They are also known for their "danger signal": when startled or frightened, a swimming beaver will rapidly dive while forcefully slapping the water with its broad tail. This creates a loud 'slap', audible over large distances above and below water. This noise serves as a warning to other beavers in the area. Once a beaver has made this danger signal, all nearby beavers will dive and may not reemerge for some time. Although this happens rarely, a frightened beaver may attack a human.

Fossil remains of beavers are found in the peat and other superficial deposits of England and the continent of Europe; while in the Pleistocene formations of England and Siberia occur remains of a giant extinct beaver, Trogontherium cuvieri, representing a genus by itself. Beavers have webbed hind-feet, and a broad, scaly tail. They have poor eyesight, but keen senses of hearing, smell, and touch.

Beaver swimmingBeavers continue to grow throughout life. Adult specimens weighing over 25 kg (55 lb) are not uncommon. Females are as large as or larger than males of the same age, which is uncommon among mammals.

Etymology ~ The word is descended from the Proto-Indo-European name of the animal, cf. Sanskrit babhru's, brown, the great ichneumon, Lat. fiber, Ger. Biber, Swed. bäver, Russ. bobr'; the root bhru has given "brown," and, through Romanic, "bronze" and "burnish."

Beavers are closely related to squirrels (Sciuridae), agreeing in certain structural peculiarities of the lower jaw and skull. In the Sciuridae the two main bones (tibia and fibula) of the lower half of the leg are quite separate, the tail is round and hairy, and the habitats are arboreal and terrestrial. In the beavers or Castoridae these bones are in close contact at their lower ends, the tail is depressed, expanded and scaly, and their habitats are aquatic.