I have witnessed beavers going straight for a 330 and just before going through it, they do a forward summersault and slap the trap with the tail causing the trap to fire. I saw this happen two different times. Both times the beavers were educated, and would not go through a 330.

i believe they can become square shy.

They can become more than square shy. I've had some that wouldn't go through a snare. There have been some that if I added as much as a guide stick, they'd shy away from that area. Change anything in their environment and they avoid it, until they become use to it being there. Fortunately those beavers are few and far between. There are quite a few that I have encountered that are shy of bodygrips.

nothin like seein one get out on one side of a conibear and get back in on the other.when pa populations were low,trappers numbers high,and a 6 1/2 in max jawspread--we had some awful smart beaver.

another thing that amazes me is the length of time they will lay up for

I think there is a certain percentage that just won't go in a conibear. Nuisance job this summer neither one of the adults would have anything to do with one. Snared the female and worked on the male for a month before I got him in a blind foot hold set. I made him smart by taking a toe trying to use to small of a trap.

.".I removed some blocking and added a 29" Belisle 660 so the creek was covered. That night I set up a 14' ladder stand to watch with binoculars in the moonlight. This Big female came in Slow just after dark and I could see her coming about 30 yards away she motored up to the trap to within 4 inches - after a few seconds she did an Olympic swimers front flip and set that trap off with her Tail...."

Have seen more traps like this than I care to remember. What this fellow described is what I have always expected happen. Thank you 330 Trapper for sharing that information.

Mac

I've only ever had beaver avoid a snare once for sure. I'd broke a bottle of coyote lure in my pack basket and some got on everything. Mud approach so the sign was obvious. They would get close and turn right around and leave.
Working a contract now, a series of five ponds, the northern most has a forestry road on two sides, so easy access. It's been trapped before, but access to the other four is not easy. This pond has a nice sized house but not huge. I've taken 13 beaver out of that pond so far, 9 of them over 60". I have 4 conibears set in four bank dens the entire time I've been there. Have caught 3 pups in the bank dens and the remaining 9 in footholds and snares. It looks like last years pups all got wacked, because there are no two year old beaver there???

Rally you are one beaver killing machine!

An educated beaver has the nose like a bloodhound and the memory of an elephant.

The beaver has a much better nose than folks give them credit for, and you're right about the memory also.

Rally have you ever gone into a place and caught nothing but a bunch of adult beavers? I've done that a number of times and I don't know why it happened like that. I've taken 12 and 14 beavers out of places that had not one young one nor any two year olds. They were all very large beavers of both sexes, and none of them were cut up. There might be 5 adult males and 8 adult females. .

Rally...got wolves
Paul...you got no wolves
(like Rally has)


like Rally does.
Really need a wolf emoji on this forum...

I don't understand the wolf correlation. I don't have wolves, yet I have had some sites with all adults and no young'uns.

A presentation on a wolf Phd student I went to the major wolf predation on young beaver the adults sat on the lodges and pounced on the young when they first learned to swim.
Wolf chest dash cams get some awsume pictures of the pounces.

What is the presence of Giardia ( beaver fever) in the population. Infected young have a poor survival rate pass the summer months.

I don't know. Fortunately I've never contracted it.

There are other colonies in the same canal/streams that have normal colony compositions. It seems like if it were giardia, it would be downstream in a flowage as well in the infected area. Or is the water sanitized by the sun as it flows downstream? But what about the cloudy days? LOL

Contracting it;giardia is a real pain if not caught and diagnosed properly.

They tried to treat our city water with UV filtration, but Cl and fluorine still need to be used to break the shell of the little bugger.

What has been used to trap shy beaver is a underwater speaker with flowing water recording with traps in front. Sound travels for what 2 miles under water. They come in fast like torpedoes.

Ive had the opportunity to watch several beaver over the years swimming down a run encounter a 330 .they drop there nose and switch directions so fast that they make this huge swish that would impress a 30lb carp often setting off the trap with the swish or inadvertently hitting it with tail or back feet

Ive had the opportunity to watch several beaver over the years swimming down a run encounter a 330 .they drop there nose and switch directions so fast that they make this huge swish that would impress a 30lb carp often setting off the trap with the swish or inadvertently hitting it with tail or back feet