Page 17 - Devotion Among Animals Revealing the Work of God

Awareness in Animals

further up, a dry sleeping chamber with a ventilation shaft.
Beavers construct the outside walls of their nests by piling up the
building materials they gather, filling every crevice with twigs and
mud, making sure not to leave any holes or cavities.
These building materials they use protect the lodge from sliding
and keep out the cold. In winter, it becomes blanketed in snow, and
even if the temperature outside falls below -35° C (-31° F), the temper-
ature within remains above the freezing point. For when winter food is
scarce, they also have a food stash concealed underwater.
Beavers also build a network of canals, each of them approxi-
mately one meter (three feet) wide, by which they can reach the trees
they feed off, which are typically located on higher and drier ground

considerable distances away.
Beavers build their dams of plant matter and stones, in a manner
similar to their nests. First they weave branches across the water be-
tween the two banks of a stream, forming an interwoven triangular
structure. In order to fill in the structure's gaps and raise its height, they
work against the current and keep on adding branches and mud, until
their dam has finally transformed a narrow stream into a wide pool of
calm water. Widening and deepening the water provides them with an
ideal environment where they can store food for the winter, as well as
area for them to swim freely and more easily transport food and build-
ing materials. In addition, it also creates a wide, safe moat around the
beavers' lodges that, just like the moat surrounding a human castle,
2
makes it almost impossible for predators to attack them.
This brief summary shows how every stage of beavers' construc-
tion reflects intellect, planning, knowledge and calculation. But it
would be irrational to credit the beaver, an animal without intellect or
ability to reason, with all these qualities. Therefore we must find an ex-
planation for the source of the beaver's behavior. If this intellect and
planning do not belong to the beaver, who does it belong to? The an-
swer is God, Who brings out superior features in beavers, as well as in

15