Beavers are herbivorous and eat a variety of leaves, shoots, aquatic herbs and the inner (cambium) layer of woody plants, which is their primary food. In Montana the willow, cottonwood and aspen are their preferred foods, but they also like maple, apple and other fruit trees, dogwood, and many ornamentals.
Beavers have been known to cut down several trees in a night.
Beavers will store food in caches under water and many of their dens and dams are also food caches.
Beavers will den either in lodges made from woody branches, mud and other debris, or dens dug into the banks of streams, lakes and ponds. Beavers build dams to maintain a constant water depth so that their dens have the safety of under water entrances. The under water food caches also provide a ready winter food supply under the ice.
The beaver habit of gnawing and killing trees, flooding through building dams or blocking culverts, and burrowing in banks causing cave-ins and erosion, will typically put beavers at odds with land owners.
