Next to humans!!??

The rodent you see here is a Beaver, found in large parts of North America. Beavers were going extinct a few years back due to large scale hunting for their skin. Now under the wildlife protection act their population has grown tremendously.

These little creatures can create quite some problem if they end up in your backyard. The American beaver constructs solid dams and lodges to live and raise their young. Moreover, building fortress like lodges and dams helps it escape unfriendly animals.

It is a fascinating process. The beaver first chooses a site towards the narrow end of a stream. Then it starts to fell trees. The animal stands on its hind legs and gnaws at the tree trunk with its sharp chisel-like teeth. The branches are cut off and the tree is then dragged or floated to the chosen site to dam the water. The tree acts like a wall.

The beaver uses broken branches, stones and mud to make the dam watertight. On this structure it builds a large dome-shaped lodge with two underwater entrances. One is a general entrance while the other entrance helps the beaver escape the animals that could harm it.

Making such a structure causes a huge reservoir to form behind it thus raising the water table in the area which could ultimately cause your home to collapse!! THE ONLY OTHER SPECIES KNOWN TO ALTER ITS HABITAT TO SUCH EXTREME PROPORTIONS ARE HUMANS.