~ Castor canadensis ~

[Irishwhistler]

~ Castor canadensis ~

Mike

 

[RVT1K]

A.K.A. Rodentus Aquaticus...

Is that the head of the family scouting out the pond before the others come out? Years ago, there was a beaver pond close to my mom's house and I would spend many an evening watching. The big male always came out first and cruised around the pond before the others would. If I was spotted, he would slap the water near me with his tail.

 

[Dean_Gretsch]

Years ago when I lived in Oklahoma, I was really into bass fishing and used one of those fishing tubes you sat in with your legs dangling in the water through the seat. An angry beaver kept circling me and actually chased me up onto the bank of the pond I was in. Very embarrassing story

 

[Irishwhistler]

A.K.A. Rodentus Aquaticus...

Is that the head of the family scouting out the pond before the others come out? Years ago, there was a beaver pond close to my mom's house and I would spend many an evening watching. The big male always came out first and cruised around the pond before the others would. If I was spotted, he would slap the water near me with his tail.

This beaver was on a river and not in a pond. With no visible lodge, I watched quietly as the beaver was swimming downstream toward my location. Likely the beaver is using a "bank lodge" in a riverine environment. I watched it for quite some time before revealing my presence and of course it did tail slap warning on the water as it dived under the surface. Years ago I would be poling my canoe across a beaver marsh in a wildlife management area on my way to a duck blind in the pre-dawn darkness. I would silently come up tight on beaver swimming in the dark waters and startling them by my unusual presence there. Unseen to me, the beaver would slap their tail on the pond surface often within mere feet of my canoe. It sounded like somebody tossed a Volkswagen size boulder in the water, more than a bit unnerving when not expecting it.

I was coming out of the same WMA from a Thanksgiving Day duck hunt over forty years ago and crossed paths with a trio of river otters that were highly curious about my presence in their marsh. Though I was near freezing cold from an elongated morning hunt in what had gone from below freezing temperatures to include pelting freezing rain, I stopped in my canoe to watch the three otters, they conversely watching me with great curiosity. Beautiful and most interesting mammals, their antics really capped my outdoor experience that day. River otters have entertained me many days while the duck hunting was slow and they are surely my favorite aquatic mammal.

Here's another image of the beaver I observed last evening.

~ Evening Waters Beaver ~

Mike

 

[RVT1K]

Years ago when I lived in Oklahoma, I was really into bass fishing and used one of those fishing tubes you sat in with your legs dangling in the water through the seat. An angry beaver kept circling me and actually chased me up onto the bank of the pond I was in. Very embarrassing story

The only embarrassing part would be if you were wearing those fin-things on your ankles...

One time when I was being particularly quiet, the big male kinda snuck up on me. He started climbing out of the pond only a few feet from me and scared the snot out of both of us.

 

[Irishwhistler]

Years ago when I lived in Oklahoma, I was really into bass fishing and used one of those fishing tubes you sat in with your legs dangling in the water through the seat. An angry beaver kept circling me and actually chased me up onto the bank of the pond I was in. Very embarrassing story

Dean,
You are referring to a "float tube". I spent a career in Conservation / Natural Resources Law Enforcement. Beaver are generally not troublesome outside of their damming of waters and cutting of shade trees on private properties. Their damming activities can cause extensive flooding and property damage to structures, septic systems, contamination of wells, and roadway washouts.

Beaver can be highly territorial at times and can become aggressive toward other animals including humans. Their are documented incidents inclusive of serious bite injuries and fatal attacks on both dogs and humans, though such incidents are relatively rare. One is best to avoid waters proximal to their lodges. "Bank beaver lodges" are much more difficult to note the presence of for those not familiar with them.

I often fly fish a relatively small river for trout and often work the evening hatch while angling mid-river in chest waders. Beaver do not have particularly great eyesight and I often see them coming my way from a distance upriver or downriver. I will usually stop casting or just drift a line and let them pass by me undisturbed. I have often had them pass by me within less than ten feet.

One evening I had to lift my rod tip on an 8' rod for a #6 weight line to let a beaver pass under my floating line which I did not want it to get tangled or hooked on the small fly on the terminal end of the leader. As I raised the rod tip, the beaver startled and splashed its tail so close to me I got hit with water.

I love such encounters while fishing.

Mike

 

[K9Kirk]

Nice shot. I love the stories. I was camping close to a river with my oldest brother once as a kid when I was about 12 years old when we saw two Nutria or "river rats" swimming a little ways away from us. True to stupid kid behavior, we started shooting them with our bb rifle. I seriously doubt that it hurt them, it wasn't very powerful but probably powerful enough to aggravate them. At one point they suddenly changed direction and swam right at us and we took off running when our gut feeling was they wanted revenge. Probably a good thing we did, they grow up to 20 lbs. and their bite would be no joke. (take off your trigger finger!) Lesson learned, "don't muck with animals." I've respected them ever since.

 

[Irishwhistler]

Nice shot. I love the stories. I was camping close to a river with my oldest brother once as a kid when I was about 12 years old when we saw two Nutria or "river rats" swimming a little ways away from us. True to stupid kid behavior, we started shooting them with our bb rifle. I seriously doubt that it hurt them, it wasn't very powerful but probably powerful enough to aggravate them. At one point they suddenly changed direction and swam right at us and we took off running when our gut feeling was they wanted revenge. Probably a good thing we did, they grow up to 20 lbs. and their bite would be no joke. (take off your trigger finger!) Lesson learned, "don't muck with animals." I've respected them ever since.

Kirk,
We have no nutria up here in the Northeast. Beaver will grow to weights upward of 70 pounds.

Mike

 

[Dean_Gretsch]

The only embarrassing part would be if you were wearing those fin-things on your ankles...

I was not wearing regular swim fins, but those hinged tubing fins they sold to be used especially with the fishing tubes. They definitely look odd, but work very well for their intent.

I have only had one encounter with river otters, but it was memorable. Two were working in unison "herding " fish into a shallow area of a wildlife pond in a protected park. It was remarkable to watch.