Biological Papers. 165 



A KANSAS BEAVER. 



(Castor canadensis Kuhl.) 

 By L. L. Dychk, Lawrence. 



'T^HE beaver in Kansas is a rare animal, and it will not be 

 . ^ many years until it will be placed on the list with the 

 deer, buffalo, bear, and other animals that have become ex- 

 tinct. There is no law 4;o protect them, and the old beaver 

 trappers will travel miles and miles to get just one more, each 

 trapper making the excuse that if he does not catch the beaver 

 the other fellow will. Not many years ago it was a very com- 

 mon animal on most of the larger streams in Kansas. The 

 first winter (1877 and 1878) I spent at Lawrence there were 

 a number of beavers living within a mile of the city. They 

 had their homes on the banks of the Kansas river and some of 

 its small islands. During the winter of 1882 and 1883 I 

 secured some for specimens that were taken near Lawrence. 

 However, I have not heard of a beaver being taken anywhere 

 near Lawrence since the winter of 1888 and 1889, until No- 

 vember of this year, when one was taken within a few miles 

 of Lawrence. This animal was an old male. It was trapped 

 by J. C. Saunders, an old beaver trapper, the same person who 

 trapped beavers for me in 1882 and 1883. This last beaver, 

 that we have any record of, was taken November 12, 1907, 

 two and one-half miles east of Lecompton and about nine 

 miles up the river, or west, from Lawrence. The animal has 

 been known to have been in existence in that locality for some 

 months. 



I have heard at different times during the past few years 

 of a family or two of beavers that were still living on some 

 of the western branches of the Kansas river. This animal 

 probably came down the river and was perhaps the sole sur- 

 vivor of some exterminated family, as he was living as an old 

 bachelor. The animal was a very fine specimen, being a large 

 old male that weighed forty-nine and one-half pounds, after 

 it had been out of the water twenty-four hours and after, as 

 dissection showed, it had lost all its blood. It was said to have 

 weighed fifty-four pounds when it was first caught. Mr. 

 Saunders tells me that the largest beaver he ever caught 

 weighed sixty pounds. 



