Beavers.
I think your "beavers" were a family of otters. They travel in family groups and will hiss at you. You will rarely see more than one beaver at a time and when it sees you it will give the water a mighty slap with its tail to warn all its friends that there is danger and will disappear.
I live on a river with a stream flowing into it here in Northern Wisconsin. My house was built in the 40's in the triangle formed by the river on one side of the house about 50' away and the stream flowing in about 200' upstream and running along the other side of the yard.
The beavers have to be trapped out every spring as the ones migrating up and down the river find this an ideal spot to start a pond.
It's not that hard to skin them, the work comes in scraping the fat off so it'll dry properly on the stretcher.
fishinphil wrote:
As long as we're talking about the ones that live outside, in the wild........
The ones that live inside can get pretty wild too.
Sometime you can shave them.
Kerry Hansen wrote:
Sometime you can shave them.
I'm kinda partial to the dental floss.
But only if they're 'eager'
beavers ! (Sorry, ladies ! The conversations here can get
a little crass !)
Girls have the nicest beavers...
Girls have the nicest beavers...
Haven't had that issue with a beaver, but when I was in my teens, I was setting traps in a canal and a muskrat came after me, not sure if I caught him but caught many muskrats and a few mink in that canal.
Haven't had that issue with a beaver, but when I was in my teens, I was setting traps in a canal and a muskrat came after me, not sure if I caught him but caught many muskrats and a few mink in that canal.
We had a rabid one attack a lady here at one of our lakes... bit her up pretty good.
I got throat cancer from eating beavers.
Thought maybe someone from "the Beaver State" (Oregon) should chime in here. First.....beavers don't eat fish...at all ! Totally vegetarian. Secondly, quite possibly the most destructive-while-being-cute animal in North America. As mentioned above, while not necessarily needing any more "den materials", they will "girdle" trees for no reason other than "a beaver's daily ablution".... gotta keep those teeth in shape.
I remember my ex-father-in-law shooting one that kept trying to plug up his pond overflow pipe (about 3' in diameter !), by destroying half a dozen good shade trees near the picnic area(which was halfway around the pond) and dragging them to stuff in the pipe. Shotgun took care of the activity (yes.....HE shot the Beaver....lol to all you juvenile humor enthusiasts !) but the unfortunate son-in-law (me) was enlisted to swim out and clear out the pipe, ....and swim all those limbs back to shore since "no use letting good campfire wood go to waste, and we don't need it in the pond, anyways" was the rationale ! Ah... the things I used to do to keep everyone happy.
I will concur that if you saw "half a dozen", you most likely were seeing otters, not beavers. Beavers are highly social within their immediate family, not so much outside. Like I said...cute, maybe even beautiful, but can be a destroying pest in many areas.....and who can blame any type of being, human or wildlife, for defending their home and offspring. Be aware and be prudent.
flyguy
Loc: Lake Onalaska, Sunfish Capitol of the World!
Ron620DVS wrote:
Do beavers eat largemouth bass?
Do Beavers Eat Fish? No. Beavers are vegetarians and eat only leaves, roots, tubers, greens and cambium (or the inside layer of bark). ... People often mistakenly think beavers make ponds to catch fish, (and ponds help fish populations grow enormously), but beavers don't eat them.
Not necessarily a true statement. A beaver will ruin a good trout stream. A beaver dam will slow the water flow down and the water will become to warm to support trout. In MN. the DNR will try to live trap the beaver and relocated it if, it has dammed up a trout stream. If it can't live trap it, the DNR will dead trap it. The only good thing about a beaver dam is it provides a good place to catch helgramites, which are good trout bait.
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