Foraging habits of Castor canadensis: Importance of girth, species and distance from shore of attacked trees.

Abstract

We chose a large beaver dam in Cheboygan County, Michigan to study foraging habits of Castor canadensis. Foraging models suggest that beavers prefer smaller trees at greater distances from shore and the smaller trees within preferred species. We tested five hypotheses that determined importance of girth, species and distance from shore. The beavers preferred tremblnig aspen, cherry and serviceberry over eight other species of trees, foraging mostly in the near area. The other results were not significant. This is not in agreement with previous literature possible because of flooding, the age of the dam and the composition of the forest at our site.