"To me it looked like a piece of wood had become lodged between the lower teeth forcing them apart in such a way as to cause one to miss it's opposing tooth entirely and the other only half engage the opposing tooth."

This beaver was caught in northern Alberta in the '90's....and he turned it in to the local F&W office where it still resides today.

Beaver have to chew hard things to keep those teeth the right size. I have places on the Oregon coast where pond lillys are the main diet so if there are any dead fallen trees in the water the limbs get worked on all the time to grind down the teeth.

I seen a wild hog that had the same issue, The tusk were almost grown back to the side of his head, If I remember right his top teeth( we call'em witters) grew in front of his cutters instead of behind. Sometimes you see strange things in a taxidermy shop.

Excellent Bushmaster. Thanks for posting that. I am forever intrigued by skulls, and dental anomalies in particular. I've seen both ground squirrels and marmots with malocclusion and teeth grown into oddities. Beautiful! (although I doubt if the beaver was impressed).

Jack

This was further comment by the trapper.

"The beaver was an older individual, as I recall, don't quote me on this, the hide measured 66 inches.
But when I caught it mid winter, when it should have been happy and healthy it was a bag of bones.
It was by far the hardest hide to flesh I have ever encountered.

There was no indication of disease or other injuries."

Seen a floater with doubles 30 years ago turkey hunting would of liked to got it but was dangerous enough fishing a turkey out of bank full creek

Must of been hard to eat