Author Topic: puzzling beaver question (Read 499 times)

travis · « **on:** March 12, 2003, 02:57:01 AM »

hi everybody. found a beaver pond last week which was no more then 150 in diameter. Right along one side was a clear white line in the ice. i thought it might be the beavers run to his dam. when i jumped on it there was about two inches of ice and then water.
upon futher inspection i found that it was a tunnel, no more bigger round then a five gallon bucket. it ran from his dam right along one side and then to the shore, (i'm guessing this is where his house is)
I always wanted to put up a beaver on hoops so i thought "this is my chance". boy, was i wrong. i figured i would just drop a snare in lth middle of the tunnel and come back the next day and the would be right there waiting for me. he wasn't.
the pond was frozen to the bottom and the tunnel had ice on all sides, even the bottom. we have been having unusually cold temps this year, so i figured he would have to travel throught this tunnel every night just to keep it from freezing up.
Now hereit is almost a week later and mu snare stil is not touched. was i wrong in assuming this was a beaver tunnel, or could he just be holed up for a while?

any suggestions would be greatly appreciated
thanks alot
travisl

Dan Mich Trapper · « **Reply #1 on:** March 12, 2003, 03:07:07 AM »

Does the tunnel come out anywhere ? Like into some open water ?I would almost have to guess that if the water is frozen and gone , so is the beaver .

TrapperKD · « **Reply #2 on:** March 12, 2003, 08:29:01 AM »

The tunnel may have been going to a feed hole in the bank. Sometimes beavers will take their meal and go to a bank hole to eat it. They often have numerous bank holes in the same pond and if they are not used very much they will sometimes freeze over.

I trapped a feed hole in a pond last year where there was only about 6 inches of water under the ice. I was able to dig a depression on the bottom of the pond large enough to fit with a 330 conibear. I caught two beavs there in the next three days before the ice got too thick to set the trap.

- TrapperKD

travis · « **Reply #3 on:** March 12, 2003, 09:05:30 AM »

no the tunnel dosent come out anywhere. one end stops about what looks to be a foot or so from his damn. the other side goes into the shore, probably a house under the snow although it does not seem like it. there is absolutely no water coming throught the damn, so it dosent seem that running water made the tunnel either. i am very confused, please help

travis