16 BULLETIN 10*78, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Eventually, when public lands are sufficiently stocked, a limited 

 amount of trapping on them should be allowed, preferably by public 

 employees under rigid rules and inspection. The beavers should be 

 taken alive and selected for fur and only the darkest and best left 

 for breeding stock. In many cases the National and State forests, if 

 fully stocked with the best beavers, should yield a valuable annual 

 crop of high-grade fur. 



NATURAL ENEMIES AND CHECKS. 



Natural enemies of beavers have been bears, wolves, mountain lions, 

 wolverenes, and probably coyotes and bobcats. Whether otters enter 

 the houses and kill the young beavers has not been satisfactorily de- 

 termined, but there is reason for believing they do. Dogs are likely 

 to prove a serious menace if beaver farming becomes established in 

 settled regions. Large snapping turtles might easily kill young 

 beavers and should be exterminated from beaver ponds. 



Diseases seem to be unknown among beavers in a wild state, but in 



zoological parks the animals have been known to die of tuberculosis, 



and it would seem a wise precaution to keep their surroundings in a 



sanitary condition. They are singularly free from insect parasites 



and their life in cold water seems to keep them in a generally healthy 



condition. 



BEAVER FARMING. 



That beavers are easily domesticated has been amply demon- 

 strated, but raising them in captivity has not been carried far enough 

 to gain all of the knowledge necessary for raising them successfully 

 on a business basis. Under the very unfavorable conditions affecting 

 animals on exhibition in zoological parks many litters of young 

 beavers have been raised, notably in the Bronx Park at New York 

 and in the National Zoological Park at Washington, so that the 

 question whether they can be bred in captivity has already been de- 

 termined. 



Raising beavers for their fur under complete con- 

 trol or under semidomestication has not been thor- 

 oughly tested, but from a careful study of the habits 

 and requirements of these interesting animals beaver 

 farming in proper localities promises success if 

 rightly managed. A beginning should be made with 

 the darkest, handsomest, and most valuable stock 

 and then the principles of selective breeding should 

 be observed. 



