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They have two pairs of lips! One pair is behind their incisors that act as a barrier to protect them from both splinters and also swallowing too much water when they bring wood to their dam! Aside from their careful method of gnawing/chewing, beavers also tend to eat fresh or moist wood that help prevent splinters. Pretty incredible creatures!

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Omg! New reference understanding unlocked. Thank you kind stranger for the cool info!

I've seen beavers in lakes before, do you know if they build lake dams too?

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I doubt they would build a dam in a lake. Scientists recently discovered the sound of rushing water is what triggers the dam building instinct. Like, beavers in an drained swimming pool with a bunch of wood and a speaker playing river sounds will build a dam on the speaker.

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We used to live on a creek that had a family of beavers. The creek fed a lake that was dam controlled. In the spring, the water agency would raise the water level in the lake and the creek would back up until it was an extension of the lake. In the fall, they would drop the dam, the lake would drain and the creek would start running again

Every fall the beavers would make a half-hearted attempt at building a dam on the creek, which at best would make a large puddle, and the rest of the year, they just relied on the human-made dam on the lake

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It'd be hilarious if the only reason they build dams is they can't stand the sound. Burbling; the beaver's natural enemy.

Okay so I've always been interested in medicine in general (as in, wanted to pursue a career in it, never panned out), and then wanted to do at least something related to animals - let's say veterinary tech or something simple to start. I can deal with both people and animals incredibly well, and have a huge sense of empathy.

But then I start thinking about how there are obviously going to be specialists out there who work on things like exotic and less-than-common animals, non-domesticated, and I just thought... are there people that work on beavers? Surely there are.

So to sum up my post - how do you get to be a veterinary expert who works with beavers? What are the steps? And can you name your beavers Dagget and Norbert?

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Beavers have a dam at the outflow of the lake I have a property on and they regularly run errands around the lake, picking up scraps and branches, etc.

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You'd still be a vet, just one who works on beavers. Most uncommon animals just get care from a regular vet unless they're in really niche areas. For example my vet also cares for wallabies and kangaroos even though we're in the US. She just happens to be the vet in a small town where a family has them as pets.

Career wise, Vet school, then working at a beaver sanctuary or a zoo would be your career path if you really wanted to work with beavers in particular.

Unless you wanted to really specialize on beavers in an academic sense? In which case you'd likely be working in some kind of beaver research center, and you might be a zoologist or a wildlife biologist in addition to being a DVM.

There are a few dams in the lake by my cottage, big lake, typically slow moving water (its a hydro dam lake over 6 km long with a few tributaries). They stay near the shore in small coves generally, but there are a few here and there.

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Is that last example something that has actually happened? Would appreciate a source if you have one.

Thanks for the info. I don't want to work with beavers specifically, I was mostly curious about how people navigate themselves towards such a specialty.

'roos and wallabies? In the states no less? That's just weird. I didn't even know people had those as pets here.

Beavers do live in lakes, and they even build structures out of wood to live in there. Those structures however, are "lodges" however, and not dams. Beavers do not live in dams. Beavers build dams to make a lake or pond, and within that, they build a lodge to live in. (If a lake would be there anyway, chances are beavers wouldn't bother to dam it up further)

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Thank you!

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I knew a guy with an ostrich (or was it an emu?) in Alabama on his farm. I was young so don't remember which it was or if he had it legally, but he had it.

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Looking at a beaver skull, this makes perfect sense! I can’t believe I never even considered that.

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Not exactly a pair of second lips it's more of the inner side of their cheeks. You know when we suck in our cheeks because it makes a funny looks on our face? Yeah it's the same concept as that but slightly different.

They have a huge gap between their front teeth and the rest of the teeth the gap is where the inner part of their cheek would go to close off access to the rest of their mouth

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That is, as far as we can tell so far, exactly it. It’s lodged deep in their instincts.

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They were a fad for small farms for a while in the 90s. Everyone was going to get rich selling ostrich meat, it was healthier than beef yada yada. Fertilized eggs were selling for ridiculous prices.

And now? Nothing.

The fad has moved on to alpacas now. Everyone is going to get rich selling that alpaca wool.

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Thanks for the info

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That's exactly what it is. It just so happens that creates dams, which is good for them, so they evolved to hate the burbling water and want to plug it up.

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I just want to say, that's such a wholesome, interesting, and useful career goal. Beavers are cool creatures, and very important for the environments they change/create. I wish you luck!

As others have said, they don't make dams in lakes, but they do make "lodges" in lakes. The purpose of the dam is to have deep enough water so they can have an underwater entrance to their lodge. In a lake they don't need a dam to do that.

More than likely they dammed up a river or creek that turned into a lake.

Occasionally you still see some big birds (ostriches or emus) on farms.

Thanks for all the replies! This lake I'm referring to is not beaver made, it's a huge man made lake that surrounds much of a major city.

I was stoked to see a beaver there but confused because, obviously, i don't know a lot about them, and didn't know why they'd be in a lake, eating lily pads.

Well, turns out, they probably built some posh lodge because the sound of running water isn't triggering their rage inspired damming instinct!!

Edit: words

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No beavers build dams in lakes all the time. They will either pile a beaver house on the shore or they'll run a straight line across the middle of a skinny part of the lake. I've seen it both ways. You can DM me and I'll send you a Google pic of a lake with beaver dams all over it

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Are you telling me that a beaver has inner and outer mouth labia?

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Is that the same for other rodents? I have a chinchilla, who has to chew wooden toys to keep his teeth trimmed.

They build lodges against the shore of the lake I live near. (well, reservoir). They build little dams in the stream that enters the reservoir.

Now I know why they call it a beaver...

Thank you.

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Was the meat not good, or was there some other reason it didn't pan out?

Read your response, clicked to next post, came back...and I'm in awe. I did an actual double-take. Brilliant!

I mean the real reason it didn't pan out was the same group physchology behind all fads - were fidget spinners fun to play with? Sure, but nowhere near enough to justify 40 billion of them being made in 18 months. And the manufacturers who hopped on last didn't do real great I'm thinking.

The meat was all right, and there's a limited market for feathers and leather. If you can find it, and if you can find a butcher who will process them.

But it was, and is, a tiny market. Americans were in no way ready to drop beef for emu. It's hard to market lamb and goat, let alone ostrich.

The ostrich/emu and alpaca fads are very similar because neither is really about harvesting anything but instead about breeding to satisfy growing demand. Which makes it a bubble, a fad, a craze, like Dutch Tulip Mania hundreds of years ago.

Most of the people raising them never wanted to kill them, they were hobby farmers and these were their cute pets. But they thought they could make big bucks setting everyone else up to grow cute pets too.

And that inherently has an end to its profitability.

Two pairs of lips? Hmm

"Dad Beaver, why do we keep building these crappy dams that don't work?"

"It's tradition, son."