Pond Boss
Posted By: mbj4ksu Critter - 04/29/18 03:32 AM
So I saw a critter (beaver, muskrat, otter) not sure which, swimming in my pond this week. It grabbed a dead cattail and disappeared under the water right along the dam. From what I've read, I should probably get someone out there with traps asap? Never seen one before this year. I live an hour from my pond and don't know when I can get back to inspect.
Posted By: TGW1 Re: Critter - 04/29/18 11:13 AM
I have become a trapper at my pond, not because I wanted to be a trapper but because I had to be a trapper. If it is a beaver, it could dig tunnels in your dam and cause the dam to fail. look for things like floating plants (that were cut) in the water from the shoreline plants, or pieces of wood floating with all the bark skinned of the wood pieces or a beavers nest along the shoreline. For Otters look for scat with fish scales in the poop. And look for paths along the shoreline going into the water. A family of Otters will eliminate your fish. Declare war! OH! I might get into trouble with that statement.
Posted By: RAH Re: Critter - 04/29/18 11:43 AM
I have another beaver in my big pond now. With the bright moonlit nights, it does not seem to be moving during daylight, so I have not had a chance to "remove" it yet. Cutting trees and trying to clog the outlet pipe. Also have what I think are 3 great egrets hanging around. Nice big white birds to watch.
Posted By: TGW1 Re: Critter - 04/29/18 11:58 AM
RAH, from one who enjoys land improvement for wildlife to another, I don't like the way I have to remove such things as beaver and otters but have not found any other way. I have two Golden Retrievers in training at the pond most everyday right now, so I don't like traps even though the traps are at the opposite end of the pond. I see some traps to remove beavers that will keep the beaver alive but have not seen any that would do the same with Otters. It kinda sucks to have to remove them but!
Posted By: RAH Re: Critter - 04/29/18 12:15 PM
I have a neighbor who traps my place, and I hate to cut into his harvest, but clogging the outlet pipe is a show stopper for me. He tunneled under my pig-panel trash guard to do it.
Posted By: TGW1 Re: Critter - 04/29/18 12:40 PM
I have a creek that has water most of the year that feeds into the bayou. Last summer the drought was so bad the creek dried up and I saw beaver tunnels a full grown man could crawl through. One of those sized tunnels could cause a dam to fail easily. And I plan on being out tonight full moon to scope out a 223 for an otter, found Otter scat yesterday at the pond. The otter like your beaver come out at night.
Posted By: RAH Re: Critter - 04/29/18 01:04 PM
Waiting for the weather to warm up in the next couple days. Was 28 degrees this morning. No more activity that I could see last night, so it is possible the dogs harassed it enough that it moved on (wishful thinking).

Update - Will need to sit by a culvert 1/4 mile away for a second beaver that completely blocked it and caused flooding. Spent a few hours getting some water running.
Posted By: snrub Re: Critter - 04/29/18 09:55 PM
Originally Posted By: mbj4ksu
So I saw a critter (beaver, muskrat, otter) not sure which, swimming in my pond this week. It grabbed a dead cattail and disappeared under the water right along the dam. From what I've read, I should probably get someone out there with traps asap? Never seen one before this year. I live an hour from my pond and don't know when I can get back to inspect.


The muskrats I have had leave tell tale signs of grass clippings floating in the water around the edge. Mine would come up the overflow pipe from the small creek behind my dam using it as a pathway into my pond. They would harvest some grass/weeds in my pond then slip back down the pipe to their home in the creek. A conibear trap right below the overflow pipe in the pond where they came out of the pipe did the trick.
Posted By: TGW1 Re: Critter - 04/30/18 11:18 AM
snrub, the grass clippings, or plant clippings that showed up at my place, was a beaver. At my place the beaver took the grass clipping(12" to 15" in length) and placed them so neatly on top of his den at the dam end of the pond. At the time I saw this, there was some 3' to 5' 3" or 4" around floating pieces of wood that I thought had wind blown into that corner of the pond. But, it turned out that wind blown wood was placed there as an entrance to his den. I have never seen a muskrat at the pond but it is possible the muskrat cut the grass and the beaver made good use of ( I'm guessing)
Posted By: Flame Re: Critter - 04/30/18 12:07 PM
I find it a little strange that all 3 otters I have ever eliminated from my pond I did during the daytime and not at night. Maybe 9am roughly. They seemed not too afraid of me. I stalked them by waiting until they went under water and I would run to get closer to the water. I would freeze when they came back up until they went under again. When they come back up a little to close....game over!! Also I have heard it said that they don't "breath" under water but if you watch closely they make a small stream of bubbles everywhere they travel under water making it easy to know where they are going to "pop" up.
Posted By: mbj4ksu Re: Critter - 05/03/18 03:30 AM
I called the local state fisheries biologist. Without much of a description from my distant siting, he thought muskrat. They see way more muskrats than beaver. Picked up a couple "conibear" traps. Gonna try my hand at something new.
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