Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Trapping Bite Marks on Beavers

I saw comments about bite marks in another thread. I have trapped two beavers in the last month that were all torn up. I thought it might have been coyotes but I haven't gotten any on cameras near my sets. What might be getting to my beavers?

Thanks, Dinny

ate or looks like they got in a fight?...…….bob

Puncture marks and one even had a 2" laceration on it's rear paw. The first one had over 30 punctures. Today's had 15-20 punctures. It almost looks like a bird of prey sunk it's talons into them. Most of the marks are in the rear half of the body all are on the back.

Thanks, Dinny

they're fighters......

Fighting prior/during breeding season???

I didn't know they were fighters.

Beavers are very territorial so yep, the’ll Brawl

When one goes into a new pond they splash thier tail hard on the waters surface to warn others and see if there are others on that water already.

It’s a good way to test if there are beavers on you pond.

big time......bob

Please note that I have refrained from comment.

It is a spring thing with them, when I start seeing bite marks it was time to pull the line. In the spring I would start down near Elbow Lake and work my way up to the Canadian border, sometimes it would be almost a months difference between ice out and bite wounds starting.

Thanks for keeping it civil and clean.

Lots of animals will bite themselves when in a trap to get away. And other ones will bite them because they can. The disney stuff is make believe.

I caught a beaver in a snare, when checking traps I found the snare wrapped around 3 trees and the only thing in the snare was literally the backbone.

Wolves stripped that sucker clean

Just checked the pics on my trail camera. I have a bobcat commuting along my trapline. I wonder if it's attacking my beavers.

Thanks, Dinny

it's not. the beavers are biting each other.

Did they have something on the Clintons?

(At least I kept it somewhat clean!)

If the bobcat was ... you wouldn’t have a beaver...beaver is cat crack!!!!!

I have trapped a few old males that the pelt was just one big scar...don’t let one get ahold of you, lol

I snared another beaver last night and it got caught farther back than preferred. It put up quite a fight and had the snare wrapped around a few saplings on the bank. It had a broken rib and a tear on the backside. Now I'm wondering if they're tearing themselves up in the snares. I set a Belile 330 and will see if they still have marks in them.

Thanks, Dinny

huntsman22:
Good evening to you sir, I trust this finds you well and you're keeping warm and dry in this latest round of winter blasts we've been getting - well that is if you've been getting the snows we have.

Anyway sir, not that you're needing an affirmation from north of the medicine line, but if I may I'll agree heartily with you and share a quick tale from my somewhat varied and sometimes checkered past.

Way back in the mid '80's we used to sell winter called in coyotes to a trapper buddy, the price of course dependent upon the exit wound we'd put into it.

This same chap, we'll call him Harry as that was his name - I understand he's gone now - but Harry was always good for a chuckle, a story and we often learned a thing or three from him too.

One day when we were at Harry's delivering a perforated but still acceptable coyote cadaver he said to us, "You boys gotta see this big male beaver I trapped, it's about the biggest I've seen."

It was in the back of his truck frozen solid, but with the body fully extended. I'm a towering 5'5" huntsman and maybe was a tad taller then as it was 25 years ago, but when I picked up this thing under it's "armpits" and held it up so the tail was just touching the ground, so help me it was very nearly to a point where it's eyes and mine were equal. Did I mention it was mighty heavy for a rodent too?

Oh, the bite marks which are the point of this story were absolutely present, so much so that it looked like this ancient beaver had been unsuccessful at a chainsaw juggling career judging from the wounds all over it. When we queried Harry about that he said - as you did huntsman - that the males were feisty fighting fools and the older one's pelts were often so chewed up that it brought the price down considerably.

Anyway sir, thanks for the reading and going along on a trip way down memory lane tonight.

All the best to you for the remainder of the winter huntsman.

Dwayne

Dwayne - great story!

So it's only the males that fight? Do they fight for territory year round?

Thanks, Dinny

Dinny;
Top of the morning to you sir, I hope that this promises to be as mild a day for you folks down south as it's looking like on this side of the medicine line.

I'm by no means an expert on beavers, learning what little I know from a few older trappers - Harry, Stan and Willy - who are now all passed on.

They told me that the valley beavers here were what Stan would call "bank beavers" in that they didn't build houses often but would live in the river or lake side banks like muskrats do. Then the ones up the mountains in the little lakes on either side of the valley were more traditional in that they'd build lodges.

Stan and Harry both told me we had some of the largest subspecies here in the valley that they'd encountered, but I can't say how far and wide they'd trapped - for sure Stan did in the prairies too but not sure about further than that.

As I recall Stan didn't like the fact that the "bank beavers" would have rubbed fur more often and that would lower the price of the pelt as well.

Going off of foggy, pre-caffeinated memory Dinny, I can't recall them ever saying females would fight, though they may if they're over populated perhaps? That's a complete guess on my part however.

Anyway sir, we've no shortage of them down here in the Okanagan - here's one I snapped a photo of years back as I was commuting to work, it's a south Okanagan commuter traffic sort of issue.



When I first showed that photo years back, a few fellow 'Fire members opined life wasn't too, too bad here if that's the worst of my traffic problems and honestly I'd have to agree with that assessment all these years later.

I'm glad you enjoyed my story, thanks again for twigging my memory and letting my thoughts wander a couple decades back to hanging with some "colorful" folks.

All the best to you Dinny.

Dwayne

Beaver are very territorial and will fight frequently. If population numbers are too high the problem seems to be much worse.

I was asked to trap several farms along a small river in Eastern Washington back before the peoples republic of Snohomish and King counties deemed we would manage wildlife through the ballot box. No trapping had occurred on that river in several years. I was primarily a coyote trapper but it was coming into spring and I was done coyote trapping for the year. I thought it might open up some more good areas for me for coyote and cat and the beaver prices were fair at the time. The damage to trees in the riparian zone was tremendous.

I never before saw such bit up beaver. Nearly every one had multiple bite marks over the hips and lower back, both male and female. Some were so badly scarred up the buyers didn't want them. Fortunately castor was worth a lot that year or it would have been a loosing proposition. I took 88 beaver out of a twenty mile stretch of river. Only a handful were not scarred up. They usually came from small side drainages where they had built dams. The main river had no dams and I always felt that had some to do with the fighting as they had more territory overlap.

It took a couple seasons to thin the population to a level where the fur damage from bites was lessened significantly. It still occurred but with far less frequency.

Thanks for the info. I've trapped 5 out of a 20 acre swamp so far. Only time will tell if there's more. My traps are set and ready for them if/when they decide to return to my yard.

Thanks, Dinny

Use drowning sets when possible. Drowning sets keeps predators off the catch! Beaver will fight the snare, damaging the pelt. Beaver also fight for their territory and puzzy, that damages fur! Are they bringing any price nowdays? I haven't trapped in 20 years, some of my favorite outdoor experience's were on a trap line! My daughter and son in law, are teaching my granddaughters to trap. The kids, oldest 12 youngest 6, had trapped five Martin this year! Exciting times!