Beaver Carcass Trail Cam

At the conclusion of an extended beaver trapping weekend at the cabin I set up a trail camera over the pile of beaver carcasses. I returned to the cabin this weekend to try a little turkey hunting (sidebar: snow and wind is not good for turkey hunting) and I pulled the SD card. Wow. Within hours of setting the camera the eagles found the beaver. I had as many as 13 eagles at one time. Several immature birds that had really cool markings. By the second day, the wolves were on them. One wolf had a nasty wound on his/her rear haunch. By the next night a bear - a big, big bear - found the spot. He turned his attention to the camera and thankfully didn't crunch it into bits when he adjusted its position on the tree. A dandy of a bobcat found the spot a few days later. The wolves kept coming every day for at least a week.

I thought this was really interesting - there's a pick of a doe standing in the same spot that the wounded wolf stood 4 hours earlier. That pic has be questioning how much I blame "the wolves" for me not seeing any deer on any particular day. "Too much fresh wolf sign, there aren't any deer moving." That sort of thing.

Enjoy the pics.

More pics.

Great pics.
Once the birds ring the dinner bell,it dont take long for the fur to show up.

Believe I would have me a ground blind there next year.

Did that here for about a week. The eagles and crows would clean up a beaver carcus in a day. No animals just birds. I don't think the animals stand a chance to get any eating with birds there.

Wolf has a booboo. Won't put his back foot down.

Nice pics. What a chunck of a bear

That bear has been eating well!

Impressive!!!

On my carcass lines for cats I just give up once the ravens or turkey vultures have discovered a carcass.

You weren't kidding about the size of that bear!

I want the ravens ringing the dinner bell.
There are a couple ways to keep them working a jackpot without them being able to clean it up completely.
Keeps them around for a long time calling in fur.

My guess is that works up in the far north better than in the mild maritime west. A 45 lb beaver carcass is gone in a heartbeat once they get on it. I can count the amount of times a cat has worked a bird-worked carcass on one hand. Seems like they also give up.

Here I've had to go to much larger baits. I had trail camera of coyotes cleaning an entire beaver in one sitting in minutes barely hours. We don't stay froze long enough. I prefer road killed deer, what's left of deer after butchering, or if you're lucky enough a few dead cows. I'm all for the birds finding them. They definitely know what they are there for. Sometimes I drop a long distance call lure when I start one up, give the predators a little head start.. Snow shows they still visit long after the last baits are cleaned up.

Those are some cool pictures for sure! We don't have to worry about those big black things around here. Was recently a wolf shot not too far from me, might have to deal with them at some point if they keep expanding.

When I am using a big bait at a wolf jackpot,i cover it with substantial sized logs.The ravens can work it a bit in between the logs but cannot clean it up.They will keep trying for a long time.You know when the wolves hit it because the logs will be scattered.
Some other trappers I know use a 45 gallon drum full of bait(moose bones and butcher scraps) and laid on its side and covered with a moosehide with one end open so the ravens can work it.They cannot clean it up but keep trying working it from the semi-open end.
When I use a single beaver carcass at a fox/cat jackpot,i will hang one or two off the ground a couple of feet low under a thick evergreen and brush it in a bit.Ravens will work at the bottom part of these but cannot get to the upper part or the one carcass on the backside.But they keep trying so the auditory/visual call lure along with the olfactory call will work for a long time.

You dont need a whole lot of ravens working a bait to call in predators.
As a matter of fact whiskeyjacks(small birds)that cache meat are one of the best visual attractors for cats fox and mustelids,since they fly back and forth all day for as long as the carcass remains available.

In frozen conditions the hanging carcass needs to be feathered with an axe.This improves its attraction for the smaller birds and cats.

Great pics. I often anchor a few beaver carcasses down so I can watch them out the window. Very common to see eagles, ravens, hawks, vultures, coyotes, bobcat, fox and bear.

The ravens can get impatient at times.....



-NC

Those all sound like fine ideas Boco. I guess I just haven't worried about it since I am running so many carcasses. Once a bobcat finds it he covers it so bird problem is eliminated.

Nice pics, and Bear!!

Looks like a really nice bobcat that came in!

Dave

Down here, I bury them about a foot deep, then cover with loose dirt, keeps birds away, and looks like a bomb went off when the coyotes find them.

Thats a BIG bear

Big, big bear. Think of how much bigger he was in the fall. Yikes.