MAMMALS OF MARYLAND 



87 



Young beavers in their second year leave the parental colonies and 

 emigrate to establish themselves in new colonies by pairs. Sometimes 

 they may move as much as 30 miles to a new home. Most of this 

 movement is accomplished in the water, because the animal is quite 

 clumsy and slow moving on land. 



According to Mansueti (1950, p. 33) no one knows when Maryland's 

 native beavers were finally exterminated. He judges that on the basis 

 of when they disappeared in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, they prob- 

 ably were gone from the Maryland lowlands about 150 years ago 

 and that there were probably some native beavers left in western 

 Maryland less than 100 years ago. Their extirpation was due to a 

 number of reasons, the primary ones being heavy trapping pressure 

 for their pelts, and elimination of suitable habitat. Beaver have reap- 

 peared in Maryland in recent years either through deliberate intro- 

 ductions or as a result of their natural migrations from other states 

 where they had not been entirely extirpated or had been stocked. 

 They are flourishing now in certain areas, presumably because low 

 pelt value makes trapping unprofitable in the State. 



Recent records and reports. — Bonwill and Owens (1939, pp. 36-37) 

 mention 3 areas of Maryland where these animals were thriving in 

 1939. One was on the Upper Potomac Eiver near Gormania, Garrett 

 County ; the second on Town Creek in Allegany County ; and the third 

 at a point where the Andover and Sewell Creeks meet at the head of 

 the Chester River in Kent County. They believe that the first two 

 colonies were the result of migrations from colonies in Pennsylvania 

 or West Virginia that had escaped extermination in those States or 

 had been reintroduced there. The Kent County colony was a result of 

 migration from a colony in Delaware which had been stocked with 

 animals from Maine by the Delaware Board of Game and Fish Com- 

 missioners in 1935. 



Amer (1949, p. 23) says that the beaver migrated into the western 

 Maryland Counties of Garrett and Allegany from colonies in West 

 Virginia and are firmly established in eight streams in Garrett County 

 and three streams in Allegany. They may be found in Garrett County 

 in the Youghiogheny River, Laurel Run, Harrington Creek, and 

 Broad Ford Run. In Allegany County they inliabit Evitts Creek and 

 Town Creek ; and beaver cuttings have been found on Sideling Hill 

 in Washington County. He estimates that in 1949 there were 150 

 beavers in western Maryland. 



RemarJcs. — Authorities are in agreement that Maryland's native 

 beaver population probably represented the subspecies C. c. cana- 

 densis. It is impossible to assign subspecific rank to Maryland's present 

 beaver population since they come from so many different sources, 

 and even some of the areas from which they have been stocked were 



