I spent a week recently visiting some family in Colorado. One day we went on a walk in a park in the mountains, where I saw this in a grove of aspen trees:
Know how these got here? Who or what made these marks on the aspen trees? And why? Check back next week to learn the answer.
These are called “beaver steps” and are formed as beavers jump and bite the bark, thus creating a series of steps that they can then use to reach the small branches necessary for building their lodges and then become their winter food source. In this way, beavers have learned to conserve trees so that they can be used over and over again rather than cutting the whole tree down.
You really deserve a lot of points for creativity, if not accuracy. Thanks for reading! Check back on Saturday to learn the correct answer.