Beaver Breaks Through Ice-Covered Pond in Saskatchewan

Mike Digout has spent the last few months observing a family of beavers who reside in a pond near his home in Saskatchewan, Canada.

Digout posted this footage to his Facebook page on October 25, showing a female beaver as she breaks through the surface of the ice-covered pond and carefully gains enough traction to grab a tree branch with her mouth, before diving back into the hole from which she just emerged.

North American beavers are known to gather sticks, rocks, mud, and other materials to build lodges, which are underwater dwellings that house their families during the year.

The second part of the video shows the same female beaver breaking through a different part of the pond’s surface, before she swims around in a circle and dives back beneath the ice.

“After the ice started freezing, I noticed the adult female had a daily routine of swimming around the pond and breaking the ice at certain spots, so I was able to get into position to capture some of it on video,” Digout told Storyful. Credit: Mike Digout via Storyful