Beaver - Lures , Baits etc

[TeeDee]

The local river has some Beaver prospering in it - which is for me a good thing.

I'd really like to get down there and take some photos - is there anything i can put down to lure them into a specific area??

Looking to find some tracks also

All sensible suggestions welcome.

 

[Mesquite]

You could always scent an area with castoreum which trappers use to bait their beaver traps with

 

[TeeDee]

Anything else I could potentially use?

 

[Robson Valley]

Carrots work here.
Beaver destroy our flowing water ecosystems and everything within those. Forest vandalism.
We get stagnant ponds filled with decomposing veg..
They block drainage and that saturates soil for landslides.

 

[TeeDee]

What would be a Beaver NATURAL predator in the wild?

Find that - reintroduce that.

 

[petrochemicals]

Let the beavers do what they want, only trouble in the beaver river area, inbreeding ? They are going to stay within their territory, so luring them for a good shot, a nice bit of wilow ? Or as robson says a nice bit of carrot. Try sticking 8t i a food proc3ssor, pulping it to release the aroma ?

 

[Broch]

I'd be curious to know if vanilla extract is of interest to them.
None around us yet (though there are plans to try in a controlled area in the west of the country) so I can't try it.

 

[Janne]

Interesting you have beaver in UK now. When were they reintroduced?

Sure they do 'damage' but only in our eyes. Part of a healthy eco system. Creates fairy short lived wet lands, moves the nutrients around, change of flora and fauna.

 

[Broch]

Interesting you have beaver in UK now. When were they reintroduced?

Only as experimental controlled re-introductions. There are a few escapees that have been allowed to stay 'in the wild' as well. Opinion is very divided but I keep an open mind for the moment. The problem for the UK is there are no real alpha-predators so they will always have to be carefully controlled I suspect. A number of organisations are looking at potential benefits for flood control and habitat improvement (see http://www.welshbeaverproject.org/ and https://ww2.rspb.org.uk/our-work/ou...tions/species/beaver-reintroduction-in-the-uk for examples).

Cheers,

Broch

 

[Robson Valley]

No. The wet lands that they create last for many centuries. Even drained, the pond bottoms never recover.
They destroy the adjacent forest. That removes any retarding factor for water flow and flash flooding.
Their territory extends as far as the water does.
The best control here is population control = the trappers crop them off like apples.
As long as the population is low, they won't expand.

Predators are few and far between. Theory says wolves and coyotes and the cats in summers.
Nobody can dig them out in winter.

I saw the remains of 2 Rottweilers in a vet clinic that just couldn't take no for an answer and tried to kill beaver.
Probably one of the most dangerous herbivores you could run across.

 

[Janne]

Did the Ancients not use the teeth as we use chisels and knives?

 

[Robson Valley]

If I looked hard enough, I might find a reference regarding use.
The incisors can be stone-sharpened but their size suggests their use for wood workings.
No where near sharp enough, like a first-strike flint, for cutting meat and skinning game.
Flint knives and stone hammers would be preferable.

 

[theDuck]

Probably not permitted where you are but knocking a hole in their dam usually brings them out. I've seen the top part of a dam pulled apart by hand, ( also with dynamite, but that was in kinder, gentler times), thus allowing the water to flow over the top. They seem to sense a breach in the dam and come to repair it. Standing or moving in the open scares them away.
I'm over in Canada where some view them differently than Europe.

 

[Robson Valley]

They plug highway culverts and also destroy flowing water ecosystems completely.
The water buildup saturates the road bed on the stone mountain side
and long pieces of the road go sliding off down into the valleys.
Normally, the licensed trapper who owns the tag for the area will be asked first to clean them out.

 

[Janne]

I believe you can eat them? The tsil specially was considered a delicacy, and as they were classified as a fish beaver could be eaten during lent? Or on Fridays?
( sorry, my religious knowledge is a bit lackning)

 

[Robson Valley]

Somebody needs to call every gut wrenching slab of biomass a delicacy, sooner or later.
Sea Urchin guts and Bird's Nest soup come to mind with grass jelly.

Beaver? Once. Just once. Like pork boiled in tasteless grease. Porcupine is just as bad.
Some wildlife clubs hold annual "game" dinners. You get a taste of all sorts of things.
I'll go for the smoked salmon, there's usually lots of it. Cougar or Lynx is OK.

 

[TeeDee]

Oh good - the thread has been derailed by our american cousins - again.

Can't you guys frankly cease posting and find a forum stateside to play upon?

 

[Joe tahkahikew]

I have sat and called beaver over by imitating their calls. There scent gland, or urine works too - but I don't think it will be looked at too kindly in the UK if you kill one 1st. I guess beaver is an aquired taste for some. But the pelt is excellent, waterproof and warm.

 

[Mesquite]

Oh good - the thread has been derailed by our american cousins - again.

Can't you guys frankly cease posting and find a forum stateside to play upon?

Well said Tee Dee.

Removed offensive phrase.

 

[Joe tahkahikew]

Hey Wadji Englishman!!.

Maybe you like to go look in a geography book or map. Last time I did I was living in Canada. McBride is in BC and the Duck is also from Canada and my grandaughter tells me Grand Cayman is long, long way south in the Caribbean I think. America is different country - come over here and we'll educate you in Beaver studies also.