Southern Vs Northern Beaver trapping

Looking for some insight on this. What's everyone that's been able to trap the north and south noticed about beaver ? From talking with southern beaver guys who really rack up numbers and northern guys who do the same there really really seems to be a difference. And I guess I'm talking more about the 20% that are more difficult to catch.Just curious what everyone thinks

Trapping beaver in the north we have a 7 and a half month long season on beaver with marketable fur.
Thats the only difference I know of.
Also the better quality beavers are east of a line thru manitoba and minnesota and north of a line thru northern Ohio.

Where's the line?

Only difference I can think of is down here we don't have to fight the ice. I've not noticed any difference between MS beaver and IL beaver.

The snakes in the south off-set the ice. lol

Open water beaver are a lot easier to trap.
Under ice are a lot more work , but more satisfying catches .
Then as Boco pointed out the fur is better in the north .

A Georgia beaver Trapper. Told me the southern beaver are more laid back.
Truth

I can see this being true if you're one way or the other, but like here (and I'm sure there too) there is so much of...well, the next 3 days will be frozen, then the next week will be above temps! And the cycle continues, very hard to get a grasp on which way to go here.

Southern beaver do not respond readily to castor-lured sets during the hot summer months. You also are wasting your time using peeled sticks of any kind for "bait" or attraction.

Ive never trapped in the north, but Ive read many posts on here from northern beaver trappers that say "just use castor lure and a peeled poplar stick to catch a beaver any time of the year. I just shake my head down here in the swamps.

Hmm, this is what I personally would like to read about...what works for YOU! There again, what is the line? I'm no expert, but here, if you use castor from another area you're pretty good. Once they get a grasp of you though, it's almost over. I'm one that I get the easy ones and wait for next year, beaver can be finicky, the first couple are easy, but after that, who knows!

I've been fortunate to trap beavers in Virginia (3 years), South Dakota (3 years), UP of Michigan (6 years), Maryland (4 years), Alaska (3 years)and North Carolina (32 years). There are differences I've noticed between northern and southern beavers. Colony size is a difference. In the south, colonies can be huge. One 1/4 mile stretch of canal I trapped here in NC, I caught 56 beavers, all adults and none were cut up. I never saw anything like that up north. The castors smell different up north than down here in the south. It's all because of diet. Here we have two types of beavers. We have northern beavers imported from WI via PA, from what I heard, and we have southern beavers from Alabama. The WI beavers I found were in the Roanoke River basin and the Alabama beavers are in the Neuse River basin. I have seen where both types were in the same areas. The way I could tell them apart is that the WI beavers had food caches outside their lodges/dens and the Alabama beavers did not. The WI beavers still had excellent fur quality compared to the AL beavers.

Castor lures aren't as effective here in the summer as they are in the north. Peeled sticks do work for me to attract beavers, as long as I'm using a food lure. It may be the lure rather than the peeled sticks that are the attraction. Both northern and southern beavers are as dumb as a sack of hammers..... until they're not.

Some interesting observations!!!

Great info Mr Paul...when you reference food caches, are you insinuating that southern beaver won't cache? I'm not trying to be malicious, just wanting to get a clear grasp on "my" critters here. Like I mentioned earlier, I think I have the "best" of both worlds here, just hard sometimes to get a real grasp of what they want. Just tell me what to look for please (if you don't mind).

I've found the AL beavers here do not have food caches. Probably because over the eons, they never had to go under ice to retrieve something to eat during the winter.

I should have mentioned that our beaver tend to make a cache, but I don't think it's every lodge, just the old guard...but I could be wrong.

Swamp and bossman dobbins what yall say is a prime example of what I was referring to .

Paul- any idea when (time period) the Wisconsin beavers were introduced, I found your insight on the food cache interesting- one would think they would evolve over time and years of seeing no ice to abandon the food cache as a survival necessity. It must be innate.

I'm also with Paul on how many beavers there can be in a Southern colony.

I've only seen a food cache once here in Arkansas. I wonder if they were a northern import?

I’d be willing to bet Northern trappers don’t deal with the number of turtles and alligators that we do here. Also northern trappers develope methods to deal with ice, and that’s something that just isn’t needed this far South. We’ll see a thin ice layer for a day or two at a time every few years.


Paul’s experiences are about as real life hands on nationwide experience as you’re going to find anywhere.

If I set on moving water in a choke point there is a good chance I will catch a snapping turtle. I have caught quite a few in bank holes through the ice too. I think they head to the bank holes for air while under the ice. If I set half a dozen traps during the summer, a turtle a day or every other day in places.

Paul, Trapping in NC. I have found that a peeled stick or two does make a set more effective. My observation is that it's just an eye catcher to bring a beaver out of the pond to the bank. And there is nothing better than Backbreaker on a pile of leaves and mud with a peeled stick or two laying where they can be seen.

I can not speak about the entire territory of Russia. but in the area where I catch a beaver. you can’t force him with any bait to put his head in 330. or just I don’t have such lures like yours?

I have never trapped beaver in the south. But chipping through a foot of ice at -20 below with the wind blowing isn't real fun. Or falling through the ice in front of the house with a 1\2 mile walk isn't a treat either but we do it.

KOSOI How many are trying to trap them can also make a big difference as well. Following behind another trapper is usually a game of chess as they become shy of working a lure or bait from a bad experience. They learn real quick and remember forever it seems.

A four or five day check would make the ability to catch the last beaver more successful. If it’s cold enough just the reduction of human activity will increase the success rate.

"beavers are as dumb as a bag of hammers, until they aren't." (The Boss).
Once a beaver smartens up from me being dumb as a bag of hammers, it becomes smarter than a trap shy coyote.
I know exactly where it sleeps every night, and where it goes to feed, yet I cannot catch it even by cheating every way that I can think of.
Now that trap shy coyote who sleeps where ever ends up, and feeds everywhere in between, I can catch him.

They always slip up. But very true^^^

Besides the obvious weather differences and the challenges that come with it (ice, turtles, availability of vegetation), the beaver is the same. If you find them in swamps, north or south, they seem to be the same. If you find them in ponds, north or south, they seem to be the same. The numbers in the south are exponentially higher than the north. I think that factor can lead to a tougher beaver toward the end of a colony. Likely because the rest of the gang is getting schwacked and the higher probability of being exposed to a trap.

one of our states fur bearer biologists told me of an experiment done with beaver. The sound of running water in a cassette player got them to covering it with mud sticks and rocks, clear up on the bank.

i wish someone would take some of those southern beaver to an enclosure in MN or someplace else "up north" and put them in a habitat pen. see if shorter days induces them to make a feed pile. If it does not, does that mean a food cache is a learned behavior?

How often do you folks in the south where freeze up is usually only a few days, if it happens at all, see a food pile? Untill I read this I didnt think they ever did in the south.

The only ones I've noticed making food caches here were the beavers NC imported from WI. I believe this was back in the 1960s. The other beavers, which are southern, do not make food caches. It's easy to tell the difference between those WI beavers here and the southern beavers here by the fur quality.

Great educational post for all....lots of experience. Nothing to add that hasn’t been already discussed.

in NC we can trap dams and lodges. We can break dams also. I no longer trap.

True , the weather changes often .
I know beaver will look for open water , they prefer to swim with their heads out of the water.
So as the weather gets warmer , the edges of ponds will open sooner , and and they tend to swim there .
That's why IMHO the drown rods were invented .
You can run them under the ice where a drown cable or wire on a weight isn't as easy to use ..
I know I personally only use drown rods in that situation , because carrying extra weight and supplies never was a favorite of mine .

I dont believe there are more beaver in the south than in the north.
Canada has 1/4 of all the worlds fresh water and its all home to beavers.

So how hard is summer trapping beaver outta ponds up north ? Or is that a thing for y'all ? Only ever hear about North guys doin it

beavers in the northern bush can be extremely wary in open water-they are always on alert because they are the main food for wolves during open water.

beavers in the northern bush can be extremely wary in open water-they are always on alert because they are the main food for wolves during open water.

On my limited southern beaver trapping, compared to not so limited northern beaver trapping, I found that some lures that work dynamite in the south do not work well in the north...and vise versa. Also, during spring/ice out trapping here in the north the beaver are HUNGRY. Contrary to popular belief a good Food lure attracts more beaver than castor during this timeframe between ice out and new growth.

Similarly, same goes for any critter in the south compared to the north....and why more guys blind set in the south compared to the north where baited sets are the norm north. Critters up here have to feed up for the long winters and become very hungry at points. Southern crittters not so much and aren't as food motivated at times.

Sweat, Mosquito's and blind set/ travel sets, are my best ADC sets in June,July,August here in the North.

I guess I've trapped beaver in enough states to have an opinion. Wyoming, Michigan, Missouri, Louisiana, Illinois and Alaska quickly come to mind. The big difference that I noticed in Louisiana was that the lodges or huts in the Cyprus trees weren't insulated with any mud. Just a bunch of sticks and no feed cache to be found. Really took me back when I encountered that first colony. The beaver in Alaska made their feed cache from the shrubby growth surrounding the wetlands. Most of the cache materials were the diameter of my finger. There were no beaver chews floating of any size to use as supports or guides. I guess that's all they had to work with and were all fat and healthy.
Since beaver have such a large range over the continent it stands to reason they have adapted to their specific environment. I've observed feed caches in agricultural areas consisting of corn and even soybeans.
One thing that is consistent wherever I have found beaver is that in most cases a beaver is a beaver and if you make a beaver set it'll work no matter the geographic area. If castor doesn't work switch to a food lure and vice versa. Blind sets no difference. A channel set is a channel set in Alaska or Louisiana.
My two cents.

Boco... Just read a study on a mountain lion in NM that ranges along a river system. In the course of a 15 month study the lion had taken nine beavers as prey. I would imagine any beaver that lives in wolf and lion country is one nervous critter.
The most interesting nugget on the cat in NM was that badgers were an important food source for that individual lion. It took a few coyotes too. I remember reading about a female lion in Texas that was hard on the coyote population. Interesting that the typical ungulate prey we imagine that wolves and lions take isn't always the case.

I wonder if those southern beavers get rubbed the way ours do here after a long ice period...And will also say I have never needed to watch for water moccasins while beaver trapping in the north!

Very interesting stuff

A 1/4? I thought you guys were metric! or were just converting for us so we'd understand?

Hes distorting the facts a little bit.He is referring to the five Great Lakes.Four of them are located part in Canada,,and part in the U.S.The fifth one,Lake Michigan lies completely in the U.S.