BEAVERS: Their Extraordinary Lives and Curious History

Eighteenth century naturalist Georges Buffon believed that beavers equipped their lodges with windows and balconies. The truth, as Poling reveals it here in this fact-filled essay, is hardly less surprising. Poling shows a cross section of a beaver lodge with its ingeniously constructed feeding shelf, sleeping shelf and flooded tunnel entrances; explains how beavers find air pockets under the winter ice and how they log trees up to three feet in diameter; and tells why, despite the expression ""busy as a beaver,"" these creatures live a relaxed life most of the year. Although the accompanying photos are rather disappointing, this is an intriguingly detailed introduction to these popular animals--one which does justice to their ecological importance as well as their engineering genius.