Humane Capture of Beavers

We are hired by many due to the fact we live capture and remove nuisance beaver populations causing property damage. Beavers can cause massive property damage by damming water ways causing flooding which can ruin crops, contaminate water sources, or damage road ways. Culverts are often blocked and when in the winter can cause major ice sheets across road ways making driving over these areas dangerous. The taking of tree can also be a major hazard as partially gnawed trees can be falling hazards for people and structures. Once you have seen beavers taking up residents on your property its wise to act quickly before they begin to build their beaver huts and start to construct their dams. Once a beaver leaves its scent behind other beavers may want to move in. So its important to deal with these issues quickly.

Beavers are North America’s largest native rodents, weighing between 35 and 80 pounds as adults. They can be 2–3 feet in length, with an additional 10–18 inches for the tail. Males and females are similar in size. Beavers have dark brown to reddish brown fur. Large, webbed hind feet and a flat, wide leathery tail help them to move swiftly in water. An animal often mistaken for the beaver is the much smaller muskrat, which is another aquatic rodent. However, muskrats weigh only 2–3 pounds and have a narrow, rat-like tail.

Beaver Trapping

Adult beavers have few predators and may live up to 20 years or more. They stay with the same mate for life and breed during winter (January through March). The females give birth to 1–9 kits inside a lodge between April and June. These kits stay with their parents through two winters before dispersing the following spring. A single family unit is called a colony, and is typically made up of 6–8 individuals; two adults, that year’s kits, and the young from the previous year.

Beavers are strict vegetarians. They feed on a variety of aquatic plants (especially water lilies) and the shoots, twigs, leaves, roots, and bark of woody plants. The bark, particularly the inner bark of trees and shrubs, are important foods, especially in winter. Aspen, birch, alder, and willow are particularly favored foods. Beavers favor habitat containing shrubs and softwood trees, flat terrain, and perennial streams that can be dammed to create ponds. They are unique among wild mammals in that they alter their habitat to meet their needs. They do this primarily by damming up small rivers and streams to form ponds.