Another beaver question
#5193377
09/12/15 12:14 PM
09/12/15 12:14 PM
|
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 4,828 Southwest Michigan
Michigan Trappin
OP
trapper
|
OP
trapper
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 4,828
Southwest Michigan
|
Ok I trapped this spot in the spring for the county drain commission. I quote 8 beaver from 17 to 43 lbs. had no activity all summer Then about three weeks ago they called me to come back as dam building started agsin. I caught a 33lbs a couple days in. And two days ago caught a 31lbs one.
So my question is: is it likely that these two were dispersed from other colonies and paired up at this site and now it should be done until maybe next dispersal ?
Every day is a gift from GOD, don't waste it!!
If they have plenty of food, give them something interesting to smell
|
|
|
Re: Another beaver question
[Re: Michigan Trappin]
#5193630
09/12/15 06:39 PM
09/12/15 06:39 PM
|
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 4,828 Southwest Michigan
Michigan Trappin
OP
trapper
|
OP
trapper
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 4,828
Southwest Michigan
|
This is a swamp area of a 800 acre lake, of the ones I caught this spring, one was the breeding female as she had four unborn kits in her and one was one the ADC trappers from last year lost in a foot hold as they only had a toe on the trap and the eigth and final one I caught this spring was missing its toe
Again it was three months ago that I caught that last one and the activity at dam site stopped completely for nearly three months
Another site I was trapping g this past spring I got 11 and the same situation now. No activity for three months and now a new dam, further down stream. And I just caught the first one there too. Another 31lbs So same age class I would assume The last one I caught at this site in the spring was a 23llb beaver that had a different color fur than the previous 10 and lots of bite marks on rear, so I assumed it was one that was driven out of its colony and came to this site as I was finishing it
Last edited by Michigan Trappin; 09/12/15 06:40 PM.
Every day is a gift from GOD, don't waste it!!
If they have plenty of food, give them something interesting to smell
|
|
|
Re: Another beaver question
[Re: Michigan Trappin]
#5193884
09/12/15 10:24 PM
09/12/15 10:24 PM
|
Joined: Jan 2014
Posts: 7,692 Virginia
52Carl
trapper
|
trapper
Joined: Jan 2014
Posts: 7,692
Virginia
|
Here is is what I can tell you with all confidence. Who knows? We are talking about wildlife. The more I learn about wildlife, the less I seem to know.
Last edited by 52Carl; 09/12/15 10:25 PM.
|
|
|
Re: Another beaver question
[Re: Michigan Trappin]
#5195258
09/14/15 07:31 AM
09/14/15 07:31 AM
|
Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 377 New York
Jim Comstock
trapper
|
trapper
Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 377
New York
|
In the north country, from my home to the Canadian border, beaver move during wet summers and stay put during dry summers and are likely to relocate or disperse at any time from April until December. Beaver will plug culverts almost nightly for the most part once they have chosen a site, so when the plugging stops, the job is done. Beaver showing up 8 weeks later are a new pair, a new job, shown by duration and being matched in size. Though there may be what looks to be other "good sites,"on a stream, beaver return to the same locations time after time for years. A "double colony" will usually have from 7 to 10 beaver, adults with two litters. Many times there are a pair of adults, yearlings and two year olds. Two year olds are often fewer in number than the yearlings, one to three two year olds, with four yearlings being common.
Two big factors are rainfall and feed in determining what is and what will happen, what to expect. During wet years beaver will move more often, as I have more than once seen them relocate to a site as many as 5 times in one year, with two or three times not being uncommon on the wettest years. I tell clients one round of trapping will usually do for the year, but not always. Northern hardwoods usually will have either a pair of adults and a single littler of yearlings. The two year olds get the boot where feed is either scarce or non nutritional. Lily pad ponds are foolers, as they can have any number in any combination with the fattest healthiest beaver and yet activity may appear to low.
Though beaver can move in large groups, 10 to 12 at a time, more often than not pairs or even single beaver "testing" in summer are common. A pair of traps will often take the two in one night. I try to guarantee for a month, or so after I have pulled, with no hard line. If there has been no activity of any kind for 24 days for instance, I will probably call it a new job if beaver suddenly appear.
|
|
|
Re: Another beaver question
[Re: Michigan Trappin]
#5195541
09/14/15 12:59 PM
09/14/15 12:59 PM
|
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 1,785 Georgia
Kirk De
trapper
|
trapper
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 1,785
Georgia
|
I had two 330 traps up one of the side drains, caught 27 animals, beaver and otter, in 14 days, in those two traps. One day one of the traps was set off.
I believe the reason I caught so many, there were three large, tall, dams where the flow all came to one.(three drainages) The water backed up a very large watershed. I believe the beaver in the back ran out of water moving to the central location. I was catching the beaver as they moved with the water level as their dens were exposed upstream by opening the dams in increments.
Last edited by Kirk De; 09/14/15 01:05 PM. Reason: clarification
|
|
|
Re: Another beaver question
[Re: Michigan Trappin]
#5196437
09/15/15 07:15 AM
09/15/15 07:15 AM
|
Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 377 New York
Jim Comstock
trapper
|
trapper
Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 377
New York
|
Paul, those huge numbers can be found when beaver are left to their own for extended periods, no trapping and no predators to keep them in check. My friend Mickey in Virginia and I were running separate lines back in '86 near his home is Stafford. In 3 weeks I got 105 and he got 106. Mick had one drainage that kept producing for a couple of weeks. For days he would come in and say, "I got 4, 7, 5, 9, 11 etc." in the same spot until I cornered him at the end and said lets add it up. Turned out he had trapped 68 or 69 in the one area, one drain. Randy in Massachusetts said "the castor mounds were as big as muskrat houses" a few years ago and likewise caught 60 at one location as they just kept coming. About 10 years ago, when I got the hernia, there were 4 colonies on a mile of track that yielded 40 beaver in a week. Set traps going in and had two in a couple of hours going out. Lake Anna is big lake in Virginia. Thorpe and I trapped it in '78 I believe, for the first time. I asked the warden, "how many beaver are there?" before we started. His reply, "if you can't get 200 you're no trappers." We thought it a bit far fetched but the warden lived on the lake and knew his stuff. Ended up with 188, 55 before the freeze and another 133 in a couple of weeks at the end and all on one lake.
|
|
|
Re: Another beaver question
[Re: Michigan Trappin]
#5196637
09/15/15 11:20 AM
09/15/15 11:20 AM
|
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 45,502 james bay frontierOnt.
Boco
trapper
|
trapper
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 45,502
james bay frontierOnt.
|
One of the benefits of trapping beaver under the ice.No carrying.Right into the sleigh from the trap.
Forget that fear of gravity-get a little savagery in your life.
|
|
|
Re: Another beaver question
[Re: Michigan Trappin]
#5196665
09/15/15 11:52 AM
09/15/15 11:52 AM
|
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 1,785 Georgia
Kirk De
trapper
|
trapper
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 1,785
Georgia
|
One of the benefits of trapping beaver under the ice.No carrying.Right into the sleigh from the trap. I have no sleigh. We have no Ice. I am not moving to Canada. Have lived and worked cattle in Ohio in 50 below weather. Worked cattle many years in winter in Wisconsin in the same below zero weather. Don,t plan to move to Ohio or Wisconsin and buy a sleigh either.
|
|
|
Re: Another beaver question
[Re: Michigan Trappin]
#5197589
09/16/15 08:57 AM
09/16/15 08:57 AM
|
Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 377 New York
Jim Comstock
trapper
|
trapper
Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 377
New York
|
USA today, coldest temperature for Ohio on record, Feb. 10, 1899, 39 below. New York is 52 below, Old Forge. Good days to look out the window. I have a sled, actually 4, use them, use them all year round. Pull over rocks, trees, R.R., water etc. Lots better than carrying. In the 70's we skinned on the ice, hauled only fur, a whole lot lighter. The hernia came from pulling full sleds of beaver and conibears after dark without a light, beaver on my back in a basket, breaking through a little better than an inch of ice in muck above my knees. Did it twice that same week, didn't learn after the first time I guess, hence the hernia. Got a very nice triple on otter too the last day, all just caught in 330's and still alive. Think they got caught as I turned the wheeler around. A good run. There were 43 beaver on that short stretch of track.
|
|
|
Re: Another beaver question
[Re: Michigan Trappin]
#5197631
09/16/15 09:38 AM
09/16/15 09:38 AM
|
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 250 Arkansas
Jason Turner
trapper
|
trapper
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 250
Arkansas
|
"How long do you wait before deciding to pull up? I know its a tough one question but any insight will educate me on what to do..."
Mike, I'm 'all ears' too on this one-difficult for me sometimes too. Guys like Jim, Kirk, and Jonesie (and others I'm sure) have done it so long they don't even think about it-they have a 6th sense! Lol
Wildlife Removal, Etc.
|
|
|
|
|