Wildlife watching

BEAVER (Castor canadensis)

The beaver is a natural engineer since it can construct artful and massive dams across rivers and streams to improve its own habitat. As the water floods into the forest the beaver can easily reach the birches, willows and aspen it needs for food. The lodge is a conical structure made of wood and plastered together with mud. The flood around the lodge created by the beaver's dam also provides shelter from predators, e.g. wolves, that often hunt for beaver.

Beavers are most often observed from a screened hut placed near the lodge. The beaver is lured by food, by providing aspen the skin of which is the beaver's favourite. The beaver can be observed throughout the summer from Mid-April when the first thaws appear in the streams. The beaver is a night animal and the nights in Finland are fairly light from May to July, which makes it possible to stay in the hut overnight. Early in the spring and late in the summer /early in the autumn a few hours in the evening are often enough to view the beaver, whereas in the summer when there is plenty of food around, the animal may only quickly show itself outside the lodge in the early morning hours. The hut is situated a few hundred meters from the road at furthest.

Time of year            Weeks 16 – 36

Number of persons  1 – 4

Observation place    Screened hut with camera openings. Arrival in the evening about 5

                                 pm, return 10 - 11 pm (next morning latest).

Price in 2010            65 € /person (incl. VAT 22 % )

Price includes           Guiding to the hut and back.

                                  Food