Beavers have incredibly strong, orange-coloured teeth that never stop growing. They use them to gnaw through tree trunks that would take a person with a saw much longer to cut. A beaver can fell a small tree in just a few minutes! They gnaw in a ring around the base of the trunk until it topples into the water.
Once they have felled trees, beavers drag the branches into the stream and weave them together with mud and stones to build a dam. The dam holds back the water and creates a calm pond. In the middle of the pond, the beaver builds its home - a lodge made of sticks, with the entrance underwater so predators cannot get inside.
Beaver ponds are brilliant for other wildlife. Ducks, herons, frogs, fish, and dragonflies all benefit from the extra water. Scientists call beavers a 'keystone species' because so many other animals depend on what beavers do. When beavers move into an area, the whole habitat becomes richer.
In Belarus, beavers were once rare, but they have made a big comeback. You can find beaver dams in the streams of Belavezhskaya Pushcha and in the Naroch region. If you look carefully along a riverbank you might spot the pointed stumps of trees they have chewed - a sure sign beavers are nearby.