




3/2 
oe 
FOREST AND STREAM. 

[Oct, 12, 1907. 


nary fish net. In one house we broke into we 
captured first one little one, and then found 
there were two others, a large one and a small 
one, but in spite of all our caution and care 
these escaped by hiding where we could not find 
them. When we broke into another house two 
large beaver came out, got past one man and 
went up to a dam where another man was 
watching. One of the beaver stayed in plain 
sight .of the watchman while the other one es- 
caped past him, goimg around behind through 
the bushes. Soon after the other disappeared, 
and probably went around the same route, be- 
cause we did not succeed in catching these two 
beavers until toward the last of our work, when 
we found two large ones together that we con- 
cluded were the same pair. 
Some days we worked hard all day, break- 
ing dams, searching out runways and holes, dig- 
ging in banks, hunting up old sleeping places, 
crawling into houses and tearing them to pieces 
so that we could see every possible spot and 
still not find a beaver. These were usually the 
most tiresome days, because when we saw a 
beaver occasionally we worked harder under the 
excitement and yet did not feel so weary at 
the end of the day if we only succeeded in catch- 
ing something to show for our work, like a 
sportsman who, hunting all day for some large 
game, turns toward. camp at the close of the 
day, worn out, disappointed and disgusted, and 
so weary that camp looks a long way off under 
any circumstances. Suddenly he hears an elk 
whistle or sees a deer or bear. All his weari- 
ness is forgotten, and if he only succeeds in 
killing something he goes home to camp re- 
freshed and thinks nothing of the miles he has 
tramped, the mountains he has climbed, the 
cafions he has crossed, the fallen timber he has 
traveled through. It is all forgotten. It is the 
same way in capturing beaver. 
Heretofore, when I have been at this work 
of capturing wild animals for the National 
Zoological Park, I have seldom if ever had a 
visitor at my camp. But this time a great many 
tourists and visitors to the park came to my 
camp to see the live beaver, some of them even 
going down to the dams and watching us while 
at work; but I do not know of one that envied 
us or wanted to wallow around in the mud, crawl 
into the wet, empty beaver houses, or stick their 
heads into the holes to see if there were any 
beaver there or any signs of them. They said 
it was interesting work, and possibly it was to 
sit on the bank and see someone else do it. 
In one of the last houses we broke into we 
found two large beavers that had escaped us 
from a house below and had come up to an 
abandoned house and dam and relocated. This 
we could tell by the repair work they had done 
on the dam. To get at these beaver we had 
to cut seven old dams in order to get the water 
low enough in the channel to drain it so that 
we could work at all around or in the beaver 
house. This was a very large dam. Even with 
the large opening we made in it, it took three 
hours for the water to run out so that we could 
work. Soon after we started in on the house 
a beaver showed itself and went down near the 
dam below the house. The man at the lower 
end of the outlet, watching the other side, 
thought a beaver had ‘gotten away from him 
under the netting because he felt the net shake. 
So we devoted all of our time to catching this 
beaver which was swimming around the dam. 
He would make attempts as though he was 
going over the dam, which was a quarter of a 
mile long. He would swim around in the open 
water where we could not reach him, sometimes 
under water out of sight. Sometimes he would 
disappear for five minutes at a time. Then he 
would come up, possibly under some moss or 
plant growth, get a little air, and then go down 
again, soon appearing in another place. We 
frightened him and drove him from one place 
to another until at last we got him into an old 
runway, and two men with nets held him there 
till another man prodded him with sticks and 
pushed him out of the runway into one of the 
nets. As soon as he found himself in confine- 
ment he commenced cutting the netting with his 
teeth and would have escaped even then if we 
had not actually rolled him up in the net and 
held him thus until we got the transporting cage 
to him and put him into it. All this time we 
were working in a thunder shower. We carried 
the beaver to the end of the dam and were pre- 
paring to take him home when we discovered 
another beaver had come down, evidently from 
the house to the netting at the outlet. Seeing 
this, he had turned and was going overland in 
the mud to get around the upper netting. Two 
of us started immediately to cut off his retreat 
up the creek; another to the lower end of the 
dam, and another man for the dip nets. We saw 
him enter’the creek and once afterward, but it 
was impossible to catch him. We searched all 
the holes and runways, wading around in the 
mud, sometimes over our boot-tops, but could 
not locate him. It was getting dark and we had 
to abandon the search. 
A few days later we found this beaver below 
in another dam we had broken and taken beaver 
from, but he had again built the dam up and 
repaired the house which we had torn to pieces. 
This was a very wise beaver. We would locate 
him and know that he was very close by, but 
hidden under masses of willows and willow 
roots, necessitating the chopping of several 
branches away from the banks where they were 
overhanging, and even when we would have him 
close to us he would not go into the net. I 
would pry him out of a hole with a shovel, and 
he would go through some tunnel or runway, 
show up by the net and then turn back, even 
passing us on the creek, going through between 
our legs. At last we chased him down the creek 
to open water and hurried down with a strip 
of the netting to cut him off from any more 
channels or runways. In attempting to put this 
net across the channel I went into the icy water 
and mud over my waist. He disappeared, and 
as we saw nothing of him for several minutes, 
we thought he had escaped. 
It was now getting quite dark, and I had 
started to abandon the hunt when one of the 
men caught sight of his head as he came up close 
to the dam for air. We ran the upper net down 
further, where it was not so deep, two men 
standing on the edge, on the bottom, to keep him 
from going up stream. I was at the outlet at 
the other end, and another man was with me 
with the dip net. At last the beaver came to 
the lower net two or three times, attempting to 
get under. Finding that he could not make his 
escape that way he came to one end of the net, 
and was trying to get through. it, when the man 
with the dip net came up and caught him be- 
tween the two nets, -thus capturing him. We 
had been after him so long and kept him under 
water so much that he seemed quite willing to 



be captured. This beaver, I am quite sure, wa 
the mate to the one we caught and the one tha 
escaped us in the upper dam, this making thre} 
times he had escaped us. With all the troubl 
we had had in capturing him he was not in 
jured or hurt in any way and was one of thf 
last two that I shipped to Old Forge, N. yf 
The last one was captured after breaking fou 
dams, tearing two houses to Pieces and diggin! 
out nearly half a mile of runway. The grouni} 
around the houses and all along the edge of th| 
creek between the houses, above and below, wa 
actually honeycombed with runways and_ olf 
channels, some of which were large enough fo} 
me to crawl through. We found him under ;{ 
large fir tree that was not less than two feet if 
diameter. The beavers had hollowed the groun 
out from under the tree and there was a nes 
and a breathing place for him, even in hig]! 
water. When we discovered where he was hil! 
came out into the water and hid under the over! 
hanging bank where there was a tunnel about 
twenty-five feet long, parallel with the creek! 
with branch tunnels running back from thifi 
water. By cutting off the bank and stopping! 
some of his tunnels we confined him in a spacc® 
of about fifteen feet up and down the creek, whict!! 
forced him into the water and a short space o:!* 
this parallel tunnel. Then by prodding him wit! 
sticks we got him going up and down the creek! 
He would go to one net and then to another, buy! 
turn back before entering. At last he went intc! 
my net out of sight under water. I could nol! 
see him on account of the muddy water, bu)" 
could feel him at the net trying to get through,’ 
By lifting the net I had him safe. ( 
We were fully an hour and a half getting this? 
beaver after we had located him. He was 2) 
wise old fellow, and even after being capturec?. 
was still full of fight. He would dive at us when|! 
we passed anywhere near the cage. He was the? 
only one that hurt himself or was hurt in being!!! 
captured. He made his nose bleed a little byl 
jumping against the heavy wires of the trans-/! 
porting cage. I looked at him and noticed al! 
tear in his eye. I do not know whether it was|: 
a ter of rage or grief. Possibly the mud and 
sand could account for this tear. I tried to con-#! 
sole him by telling him that I would try to send! 
him to his mate and friends. I told him that if™ 
he only knew what was wanted of him he would, 
feel better; that he was going to a country where” 

























































































































he would have good care and protection, and“ 
possibly escape many of his old enemies. 
The dam where we captured him was in heavy'" 
timber, and as we only caught three beaver in" 
this dam we think its mate was probably caught h 
by a mountain lion, bear, 
lynx or coyote. I 
DAM BUILT BY A LONE MALE BEAVER IN THE ADIRONDAGSS. 
Frank Baker, of Beaver Lake, who is shown standing on the dam, 
i When 
the old male seemed to look on them as trespassers, and Baker thinks the patriarch refused at 
make friends with the females, but finally became reconciled to their presence. 
time, and asserts positively that it worked alome. 
watched the old beaver for a long | 
other beavers were liberated in the stream, {\ 
first to rey 

