Amazing American Beaver Facts

Amazing American Beaver Facts The American beaver (Castor canadensis) is one of two living species of beavers- the other species of beaver is the Eurasian beaver. The American beaver is the worlds second largest rodent, only the capybara of South America is larger. Fast Facts: Beavers Scientific Name: Castor canadensisCommon Name(s): Beaver, North American Beaver, American BeaverBasic Animal Group:  MammalSize: About 29–35 inches longWeight: 24–57 poundsLifespan: Up to 24 yearsDiet:  HerbivoreHabitat:  Wetland areas of North America outside of the California and Nevada deserts and parts of Utah and Arizona.Population:  6–12 millionConservation  Status:  Least Concern Description American beavers are stocky animals that have a compact body and short legs. They are aquatic rodents and have a number of adaptations that make them adept swimmers including webbed feet and a broad, flat tail that is covered with scales. They also have an extra set of eyelids which are transparent and close over their eyes enabling beavers to see while underwater. Beavers have a pair of glands located at the base of their tail called castor glands. These glands secrete an oil that has a distinct musk odor, making it great for use in marking territory. Beavers also use the castor oil to protect and waterproof their fur. Beavers have very large teeth in proportion to their skull. Their teeth and are super-sturdy thanks to a coating of tough enamel. This enamel is orange to chestnut brown in color. Beavers teeth grow continuously throughout their lives. As beavers chew through tree trunks and bark, their teeth get worn down, so the continuous growth of their teeth ensures they always have a sharp set of teeth available to them. To further assist them in their chewing endeavors, beavers have strong jaw muscles and significant biting strength. Stan Tekiela Author / Naturalist / Wildlife Photographer/Getty Images Habitat and Distribution American Beavers live in the riparian zone- along the edges of wetlands and bodies of fresh water including rivers, creeks, lakes, and ponds and, in some cases, in and around brackish estuaries. American beavers inhabit a range that extends throughout most of North America. The species is only absent from the northernmost regions of Canada and Alaska as well as the deserts of the southwestern United States and Mexico. Diet Beavers are herbivores. They feed on bark, leaves, twigs and other plant material which is plentiful in their native habitat. Behavior Beavers are well-known for their unusual behaviors: They use their strong teeth to fell small trees and branches which they use to build dams and lodges which have a significant impact on the path and health of waterways. Beaver dams are structures built with logs, branches, and mud. They are used to block up flowing streams to flood grasslands and forests, thus turning them into beaver-friendly habitats. In addition to providing habitat for a wide range of animals, beaver dams also reduce waterway erosion. Beavers build lodges, dome-shaped shelters made of woven sticks, branches, and grass that are plastered together with mud. Lodges can be burrows built into pond banks or mounds built in the middle of a pond. They can be up to 6.5 feet tall and 40 feet wide. These elaborate structures include an insulated, wood-lined lodge chamber and a ventilating shaft called a chimney. The entrance to a beaver lodge is located below the surface of the water. Lodges are generally built during the warmer months, during which time beavers also gather food for the winter. While they do not migrate or hibernate, they do slow down during the winter months. Reproduction and Offspring Beavers live in family units called colonies. A beaver colony commonly includes as many as eight individuals including a monogamous breeding pair, newborn kits, and yearlings (kits from the prior season). Members of the colony establish and defend a home territory. Beavers reproduce sexually. They reach sexual maturity at about three years of age. Beavers breed in January or February and their gestation period is 107 days. Typically, three or four beaver kits are born in the same litter. Young beavers are weaned at about two months of age. Zoran Kolundzija/Getty Images Conservation Status Beavers are considered to be of Least Concern, meaning that there is a large, thriving population of beavers in North America. This has not always been the case; in fact, beavers were overhunted for many years and beaver fur was the basis of many large fortunes. More recently, however, protections were put in place which allowed beavers to re-establish their population. Beavers and Humans Beavers are a protected species, but their behaviors can make them a nuisance in some settings. Beaver dams can cause flooding to roads and fields, or block the flow of waterways and the fish that swim in them. On the other hand, beaver dams are also important for controlling erosion and runoff during storms. Sources â€Å"Beaver.†Ã‚  Smithsonians National Zoo, 23 Nov. 2018, nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/beaver.Sartore, Joel. â€Å"Beaver.†Ã‚  National Geographic, 21 Sept. 2018, www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/b/beaver/.

Abraham Lincolns 1838 Springfield Lyceum Address

Abraham Lincolns 1838 Springfield Lyceum Address More than 25 years before Abraham Lincoln would deliver his legendary Gettysburg Address, the 28-year-old novice politician delivered a lecture before a gathering of young men and women in his newly adopted hometown of Springfield, Illinois. On January 27, 1838, a Saturday night in the middle of winter, Lincoln spoke on what sounds like a fairly generic topic, The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions. Yet Lincoln, a little-known lawyer serving as a state representative, indicated his ambition by delivering a substantial and timely  speech. Prompted by the murder of an abolitionist printer in Illinois two months earlier, Lincoln spoke about issues of great national importance, touching on slavery, mob violence, and the future of the nation itself. The speech, which has become known as the Lyceum Address, was published in a local newspaper within two weeks. It was Lincolns earliest published speech. The circumstances of its writing, delivery, and reception, provide a fascinating glimpse at how  Lincoln viewed the United States, and American politics, decades before he would lead the nation during the Civil War. Background of Abraham Lincolns Lyceum Address The American Lyceum Movement began when Josiah Holbrook, a teacher and amateur scientist, founded a volunteer educational organization in his town of Milbury, Massachusetts in 1826. Holbrooks idea caught on, and other towns in New England formed groups where local people could give lectures and debate ideas. By the mid-1830s more than 3,000 lyceums had been formed from New England to the South, and even as far west as Illinois. Josiah Holbrook traveled from Massachusetts to speak at the first lyceum organized in central Illinois, in the town of Jacksonville, in 1831. The organization which hosted Lincolns lecture in 1838, the Springfield Young Mens Lyceum, had probably been founded in 1835. It first held its meetings in a local schoolhouse, and by 1838 had moved its meeting place to a Baptist church. The lyceum meetings in Springfield were usually held on Saturday evenings. And while the membership comprised young men, females were invited to the meetings, which were intended to be both educational and social. The topic of Lincolns address, The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions, seems like a typical subject for a lyceum address. But a shocking event that occurred less than three months earlier, and only about 85 miles from Springfield, surely inspired Lincoln. The Murder of Elijah Lovejoy Elijah Lovejoy was a New England abolitionist who settled in St. Louis and began publishing a stridently anti-slavery newspaper in the mid-1830s. He was essentially chased out of town in the summer of 1837, and crossed the Mississippi River and set up shop in Alton, Illinois. Though Illinois was a free state, Lovejoy soon found himself under attack again. And on November 7, 1837, a pro-slavery mob raided a warehouse where Lovejoy had stored his printing press. The mob wanted to destroy the printing press, and during a small riot the building was set on fire and Elijah Lovejoy was shot five times. He died within an hour. Elijah Lovejoys murder shocked the entire nation. Stories about his murder at the hands of a mob appeared in major cities. An abolitionist meeting held in New York City in December 1837 to mourn for Lovejoy was reported in newspapers throughout the East. Abraham Lincolns neighbors in Springfield, only 85 miles away from the site of Lovejoys murder, certainly would have been shocked by the outburst of mob violence in their own state. Lincoln Discussed Mob Violence In His Speech It is perhaps no surprise that when Abraham Lincoln spoke to the Young Mens Lyceum of Springfield that winter he made mention of mob violence in America. What may seem surprising is that Lincoln did not refer directly to Lovejoy, instead mentioning acts of mob violence generally: Accounts of outrages committed by mobs form the every-day news of the times. They have pervaded the country from New England to Louisiana; they are neither peculiar to the eternal snows of the former nor the burning suns of the latter; they are not the creature of climate, neither are they confined to the slave-holding or the non-slave-holding states. Alike they spring up among the pleasure-hunting masters of Southern slaves, and the order-loving citizens of the land of steady habits. Whatever, then, their cause may be, it is common to the whole country. The likely reason Lincoln did not mention the mobs murder of Elijah Lovejoy is simply because there was no need to bring it up. Anyone listening to Lincoln that night was entirely aware of the incident. And Lincoln saw fit to place the shocking act in a broader, national, context. Lincoln Expressed His Thoughts on the Future of America After noting the menace, and very real threat, of mob rule, Lincoln began to talk of laws, and how it is the duty of citizens to obey the law, even if they believe the law is unjust. By doing that, Lincoln was keeping himself apart from abolitionists like Lovejoy, who openly advocated violating the laws pertaining to slavery. And Lincoln did make a point of emphatically stating: I do mean to say that although bad laws, if they exist, should be repealed as soon as possible, still they continue in force, for the sake of example they should be religiously observed. Lincoln then turned his attention to what he believed would be a grave danger to America: a leader of great ambition who would attain power and corrupt the system. Lincoln expressed a fear that an Alexander, a Caesar, or a Napoleon would rise in America. In speaking about this hypothetical monstrous leader, essentially an American dictator, Lincoln wrote lines which would be quoted often by those analyzing the speech in future years: It thirsts and burns for distinction; and if possible, it will have it, whether at the expense of emancipating slaves or enslaving freemen. Is it unreasonable then, to expect that some man possessed of the loftiest genius, coupled with ambition sufficient to push it to its utmost stretch, will at some time spring up among us? It is remarkable, that Lincoln used the phrase emancipating slaves nearly 25 years before he would, from the White House, issue the Emancipation Proclamation. And some modern analysts have interpreted the Springfield Lyceum Address as Lincoln analyzing himself and what kind of leader he might be. What is apparent from the 1838 Lyceum Address is that Lincoln was ambitious. When given the opportunity to address a local group, he chose to comment on matters of national importance. And while the writing may not show the graceful and concise style he would later develop, it does demonstrate that he was a confident writer and speaker, even in his 20s. And it is noteworthy that some of the themes Lincoln spoke about, a few weeks before he turned 29, are the very same themes that would be discussed 20 years later, during the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas Debates that began his rise to national prominence.