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Post by thorsmightyhammer on Feb 7, 2006 18:51:32 GMT -6
Rally anymore I find there are no written rules when it come to beaver.
I have several colonies this winter where I caught more than two blanket beaver and few or no little ones.
One colony I had two conis and the first two checks had 4 large blanket beaver. Had me puzzled for sure. Let the traps sit for couple more days and had a 45 incher. Incidentally 3 of the 4 blankets were bit all to he$$. Worse than any spring beaver. Sad part is one was black as coal would liked to have tanned that one.
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Post by jeffc on Feb 7, 2006 20:00:50 GMT -6
Great post thanks for all the Info Jeff
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Post by BK on Feb 8, 2006 20:12:34 GMT -6
So then Rally am I correct in assuming you feel that the reason the females are almost always bigger than the males is because she lost her mate and hooked up with a younger male. If so, in your opinion if left alone do you maintain the males would reach the same size of the females?
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Post by Rally Hess on Feb 9, 2006 1:02:43 GMT -6
Steve, All bets are off in my experience in colonies that heave been trapped or close to a road in our country. I had a single house where I took 28 beaver. The house was about 12 feet above the ice with two wings on it. I was trapping it with a conibear friend of mine. He was trapping bank dens and I was snaring them on poles. He caught six and they quit using the bank dens. The day we pulled I had a chewed pole with no beaver. Ended up with 6 poles down there and checking it was always a surprise of some kind. BK, I believe the male and female will grow equal in size if left alone. The point I was making is that, it is common to have a female that is larger than a male due to her male being trapped. She will take another female in the spring and it will be smaller, as most likely, it is a two year old beaver during spring dispersal that will replace the trapped male. I've seen it the other way around but seems pretty rare on my lines. I believe this is because the female, once bred or while tending young, stays fairly close to the lodge, while the male covers more ground and is more likely to be trapped here, especially during the spring season,in colonies close to the road or easily accessible. I have found the beaver on private land that hasn't been trapped or back in the bush to be less likely to have these mismatched pairs.
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