Dam removal. It is pointless to destroy a beaver dam because beavers frequently many at one time often begin rebuilding them immediately after they are removed. Furthermore, it may be illegal to remove a beaver dam without a permit.
Live trapping and moving beavers elsewhere translocating or relocating is risky. Beavers may not survive relocation and those that do may move large distances from the release site.
However, when tolerance or mitigation are not an option, landowners may consider relocation as an alternative to lethal removal. Please note that pursuant to WAC , it is unlawful to take live wildlife, wild birds, or game fish from the wild without a permit issued by the director except as otherwise provided by department rule. Beaver relocation may be an option pursuant to RCW With a permit, beavers may be relocated where beaver damage mitigation efforts have failed or are infeasible, where beavers are posing a public health and safety risk, or other irresolvable factors exist.
Permitted beaver relocators may move beavers to a site that is unoccupied by other beavers as long as there is cooperation among adjacent landowners and local wildlife officials. A cooperative evaluation of existing habitat quality and potential adverse beaver activity is required. There is no guarantee that beavers will stay where released. They may find attractive habitat and forage on nearby properties.
Relocation of entire family units to new habitat is strongly advised over relocation of individuals in order to encourage the beavers to settle near the release site. To help ensure the survival of beavers, the watercourse at the release site should have a low gradient and the site should have adequate food supply. Beavers should be moved during their principal dam-building period, August to October. This will allow them time to gather a food cache, but limit their time to explore before having to settle in for the coming of winter.
It may be helpful to provide beavers with a pickup-truck load of aspen or other trees to use as forage and building material at the release site. This may encourage the beavers to stay nearby. Click here for more information about beaver relocation or to find a permitted beaver relocator.
Lethal control may become necessary when all efforts to dissuade problem beavers fail. Removing beavers is rarely a lasting solution since survivors have larger litters, and others will resettle good habitats. Lethal trapping has traditionally been the primary form of controlling beaver damage. If you feel you need to have a beaver trapped, invite a recreational trapper to harvest the beaver from your property.
Beaver may be trapped for harvest only during an open furbearer trapping season and with a valid trapping license. Alternatively, you can hire a private individual who works directly with property owners on a fee basis to resolve problem beaver situations. Note: State wildlife offices do not provide animal removal services. Resources for trapping wildlife that are causing damage are available on the Trapping nuisance wildlife page. Hancock or Bailey suitcase-type traps are the most commonly used live trap.
Due to the weight and dangers associated with suitcase traps, it is recommended that only people experienced with these traps use them. Bait for live traps include freshly cut tree sprouts or branches of preferred foods, apples, and commercial scents and lures. Shooting beavers that are causing property damage requires skilled marksmanship and is not recommended. For safety considerations, shooting is generally limited to rural situations and is considered too hazardous in more populated areas, even if legal.
Beavers can be infected with the bacterial disease tularemia. Tularemia is fatal to animals and is transmitted to them by ticks, biting flies, and via contaminated water. Animals with this disease may be sluggish, unable to run when disturbed, or appear tame.
Tularemia may be transmitted to humans if they drink contaminated water, eat undercooked, infected meat, or allow an open cut to contact an infected animal. The most common source of tularemia for humans is to be cut or nicked by a knife when skinning or gutting an infected animal. Humans can also get this disease via a tick bite, a biting fly, ingestion of contaminated water, or by inhaling dust from soil contaminated with the bacteria.
A human who contracts tularemia commonly has a high temperature, headache, body ache, nausea, and sweats. A mild case may be confused with the flu and ignored. Beavers are very social and live in groups called colonies. One lodge is often the home for a monogamous couple, their young and the yearlings born the year before. Beavers mate during the winter, from January to March.
To help them hide from predators such as bears, wolves and coyotes, beavers tend to do most of their business at night. Although you might see one occasionally during the day, a beaver usually stays in his den until the sun begins to set. Dams alter the flow of rivers and can flood hundreds of acres. Dams prevent erosion and raise the water table, which helps purify the water as silt builds up and breaks down toxins, according to ADW.
As sediment and debris build up, carbon increases and nitrogen decreases. The chemical changes alter the type of invertebrates, and the new water source attracts new species of birds, fish and amphibians. Flooded timber dies off and a forest becomes an open water ecosystem.
Over time, abandoned dams decay, and meadows appear. Unlike other mammals, beavers can digest cellulose, which is a major component of their diet, according to ADW. Beavers eat leaves, roots and bark from aspens, willows, maples and poplar trees. They also eat aquatic plants. Beavers are very social and live in groups called colonies. One lodge is often the home for a monogamous couple, their young and the yearlings born the year before. Beavers mate during the winter, from January to March. The Eurasian beaver has a gestation period of around 60 to days.
Then, they give birth to one to six babies that weigh around 8. Baby beavers are called kits. Eurasian kits are usually weaned after six weeks of life.
Beavers have large webbed hind legs that act as paddles when they swim through the water. They have a large flat tail that helps them steer through the water. They also have clear eyelids that make it possible for them to open their eyes underwater. These animals can stay under water for as long as 15 minutes because of their specially adapted lungs. Beavers have wide, hairless, flat tails. Their tails are not only used for steering but also for balance, warning signals, and fat storage.
When beavers chew on trees they use their tail like a kick stand to give them support. When a beaver feels threatened by danger it will slap its tail on the water as a warning to the predator. Beavers also store fat in their tails for the long, cold winters. Beaver dams and lodges are two easily identifiable clues of beaver activity. Another clue is to look at the trees along the shoreline to see any signs of gnawed trees.
Beavers have a dramatic effect on the land. The dams they create provide new habitat for fish, plants, otters, and other underwater creatures. The new ponds also provide new water sources for moose and wolves. The land that dries up near the dams also becomes reforested because of its rich, fertile soil. Beavers are extremely important for our forests. Did you know that beavers are responsible for the exploration and settlement of Canada and large parts of the northern US?
In the s, European fishermen brought beaver robes purchased from the Indians back to Spain. The Europeans prized the beaver fur because of its warmth and its ability to be made into felt hats. Soon there was a quest in Europe to collect beaver skins from Canada and the US to sell back home. In the s British merchants traded with the local Cree Indians for beaver skins. The Indians did all of the trapping and the Europeans traded them blankets, weapons, and beads for the skins. The Europeans hired French Canadian farm boys known as voyageurs to paddle huge birch bark canoes from Montreal to the Indian villages to collect the beavers.
Beaver populations all over North America decreased rapidly until the s when regulations were set that limited the number trapped. Beaver dam. Luther Goldman Image Source.
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