Icebreaker! Moment a beaver smashes through the frozen surface of a lake to grab a branch and then dives back underneath
- Michael Digout took photos of animals near his home in Saskatchewan, Canada
- Beavers live in a pond near his home and he got a video of one breaking the ice
- The animal tries to get on to the surface to get a branch before diving back in
This is the moment a crafty beaver breaks through an ice-covered pond before grabbing a branch and disappearing into the water.
Michael Digout has been taking pictures of the family of animals who live in a pond near his home in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, for the last few months.
Footage, posted on his Facebook on October 25, shows a female beaver breaking through the frozen surface of a lake.
ered pond in a pond in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
She slips about on the ice, struggling to get enough traction to pull her body out of the water, and eventually grabs hold of a branch with her front paw.
When the animal is finally standing on the frozen water, it frees the branch which had been stuck between two tree stumps, before placing it in her mouth.
She dives back below the surface of the lake, through the hole which she emerged, with her new possession clamped firmly between her jaws.
The second part of the video shows the same beaver swimming below the lake's surface before erupting through the top.
The female beaver slips about on the ice, struggling to get enough traction to pull her body out of the water, and eventually grabs hold of a branch with her front paw
The beaver, which is Canada's official symbol, circles for a few moments before diving back below the surface.
The large semi-aquatic mammals are herbivores and consume mostly tree bark, often chewing down trees for building material.
She dives back below the surface of the lake, through the hole which she emerged in the footage posted on October 25
They use this to make dams and lodges, gathering sticks, rocks, mud and other materials.
Beavers are considered to be a keystone species, meaning they have a disproportionately large effect on its natural environment due to their numbers.
The animals always live in a burrow with an underwater entrance, but ice forming during winter can restrict their movement.
No comments: