The beaver is a representative of the rodent order. The beaver's body length reaches 75-120 cm, with the largest representatives up to 130 cm. The usual body weight is 16-18 kg. There are specimens weighing up to 30 kg. The weight and size of beavers depends on the area where they live, their feeding conditions and existence. Females and males are practically the same in weight and size.
The beaver has a cylindrical body shape and streamlined contours, which is most convenient for moving in water. The beaver is an excellent swimmer and diver.
The fur of this animal is very hard. The color is dark brown. The tail (a characteristic feature of the beaver) is devoid of hair, flattened horizontally and covered with peculiar scales (they have nothing in common with fish scales). His ears are very small. The eyes are also small. Despite the latter circumstance, beavers' vision is quite sharp.
A few words about habitats. In Russia, beavers are common in almost all large rivers, as well as small rivers and rivulets. They live mostly in stagnant or slow-flowing bodies of water. As already mentioned, the strength of a rodent is not enough to overcome a fast current.
This is one of the factors determining the construction of dams by beavers. This barrier allows you to make an excellent standing pond from a fast river.
Beavers lead an active crepuscular or nocturnal lifestyle.
Beavers are monogamous: a pair is created for life, but they most often live in family groups.
Beavers have two types of homes: . A hole is dug in a steep river bank. This dwelling is easier to build, and no river has a steep bank. However, if this does happen, the animals build a complex technical structure -. This is an entire engineering structure, although in appearance it resembles a pile of branches brought by floods. The hut is built from tree branches and soil. The most massive branches are laid at the base in such a way as to support the weight of one or several animals inside. Next, a roof is built above this raft, which, although it has a base in the form of folds of reeds, reeds or cattails, is mostly floating. Thus, a living chamber is obtained in which the animal hides. There are usually several passages leading into this chamber. As mentioned above, they are all underwater.
The main food of beavers in summer consists of green parts of plants, the bark of young trees and other plant foods. In winter, when the green parts of plants die off, beavers feed on the bark of stored tree branches. Beavers' favorite trees are white poplars, aspens and willows.
Beavers' teeth, like other rodents, grow throughout their lives. Despite their strength, they wear down during operation. In addition, they are constantly becoming sharper.

Castoreum

It is worth telling about this organ in a little more detail, since the entire tragic history of the beaver tribe is connected not only with the indefatigable prey of this animal for its most valuable fur, but also with an equally, and sometimes many times more expensive, part of the beaver’s body - the beaver stream.
The beaver stream is a pair of pear-shaped sacs that have long been considered the musk glands of the beaver. As studies have shown, these organs do not have a glandular structure, but are highly wrinkled connective tissue formations of epithelial origin. The physiological function of the beaver stream has not been fully studied. It is known, however, that it is involved in calcium metabolism.
The urine that gets into these bags undergoes fermentation and is subsequently used to mark the territory. Both males and females have a beaver stream, and although it differs slightly in chemical composition, it is possible that it is associated with sexual activity (marking to attract individuals of the opposite sex, mutual sniffing of males and females). There is some difference in properties: for example, when dried, the contents of females’ sacs lose weight from 5 to 15%, and in adult males - up to 30%.
The weight of the beaver stream of an adult animal is 170-200 g, less for young beavers. There is no significant difference between males and females in the weight of the pouches. The beaver stream of Canadian beavers is lighter in weight and differs in composition compared to European beavers. In the Middle Ages, Russian, or Siberian, beaver stream was especially valued by healers.
The chemical composition and properties of the jet are quite complex and have not been sufficiently studied. It is known that the contents of the stream are dissolved and extracted in alcohol and ether. It is poorly soluble in water and insoluble in acetone and gasoline. The contents of the beaver stream include essential oils, which give the characteristic smell of soaked willow bark, resinous substances, castorin, cholesterol, ammonium carbonate, calcium carbonate, calcium phosphate, salicylic acid, benzoic acid, phenol and other substances.
Beaver stream has been used in medicine since ancient times. For a long time it was considered almost a panacea for all diseases. It is mentioned in their works by Hippocrates, Galen, Avicenna, Marius and others. Beaver stream was especially valued in the East. In medieval medical books, castorium (the main active principle of beaver stream) was recommended for use in gynecological diseases, amenorrhea, and especially in various nervous diseases as an anticonvulsant and sedative.
Some northern peoples practically did not use beaver skins, but they had a high price for beaver stream, which they used in various rituals and religious practices.

Slavic peoples also used beaver stream to treat throat diseases, chest diseases, etc. Unfortunately, many traditional medicine recipes have been lost. It is known that the contents of the bags promote rapid healing of wounds, and a solution in alcohol cures abscesses and boils in a few days. The bactericidal properties of the stream are also evidenced by the fact that the beaver stream bags themselves can be stored for years without undergoing any changes, without being affected by rotting bacteria, mold fungi and even mites.
Currently, modern medicine does not deny the healing properties of beaver stream. Salicylic acid, which is the basis of many modern drugs, was originally isolated from willow bark, and, as we know, it is the main component of beaver nutrition. But due to the high cost of preparations made from natural beaver stream and possible counterfeiting on the black market, it is still safer to use industrial medicines.
Currently, beaver stream is more widely used in the perfume industry as a fixative for the odors of the most expensive perfumes and gives them a peculiar “animal” smell. The organized beaver fishery that was then still in the USSR, which began in 1963, made it possible to abandon the import of beaver stream and provided the domestic perfume industry with its own raw materials.

Beaver hunting with a trap

One of the most productive methods of beaver hunting is beaver hunting with traps. Many hunters wonder how to catch a beaver?

When to catch a beaver with a trap?

The beaver hunting season in Russia is set from October 1 to February 28. Although they may differ in each region. The best time to hunt beaver is in the fall, before freeze-up, on the trails laid by beavers on the shore. In winter, it is better to catch beavers with traps on warm days; beavers are not active on cold days. A very catchy time for beaver hunting is in February during thaws, when an opening appears near the shore or at a beaver dam.

What trap to set for a beaver?

To catch a beaver with a trap, the heaviest and most powerful traps No. 5, 6, 7 are required, because beavers are very strong animals. If the trap is placed under water, you need to use a frame trap with a mesh.

How to set a trap for a beaver?

A trap that is placed on land must be treated, removing any smell from it; if the trap is new, the grease is removed from it; if the trap has already been used, the rust is removed from it. You can wipe the trap with pine needles. If the trap is installed in water, then this is not necessary.

The trap must be tied with a chain or cable to a log, which can be placed on the ice or on the shore.

In order to better camouflage a trap installed in water, shake the water around it; after the silt and sand settle on it, it will be reliably camouflaged.

Where to place a trap for a beaver?

Beaver traps are placed in places that are most often visited by them.

Typically this is:

• the place where beavers emerge from the water onto land, to the feeding area
• a path made by beavers from one body of water to another
• at a specially made gulley in the dam, which beavers will definitely come to repair
• near stumps, snags, hummocks, on which beavers place their scent marks to mark their territory

A beaver caught in a trap on the shore usually behaves calmly, but it is still advisable to set the trap so that the caught beaver can remain in the water.

Beaver hunting with a gun

There are two main methods of hunting beaver with a gun: ambush at dusk or at night on the shore and hunting beaver at night from a boat.

Beaver sighting

You need to approach the ambush site long before dark, while the beavers are inactive, and you should always approach the reservoir and set up an ambush from the windward shore. There should be no odor coming from the hunter, otherwise a small breeze is enough - and the animal will become alert, begin to sniff and detect your presence.

How to choose a place to hunt beaver with a gun?

It may be located near the surface of the water or be slightly elevated above it. The first turns out to be quite advantageous if you shoot at animals located on the shore, the second - if the intended victim is in the water. Sometimes on such a hunt it can be useful; with its help it is convenient to observe beavers located at a considerable distance from the hunter.

Although the beaver is a crepuscular animal, if it is often disturbed, it may well switch to a purely nocturnal lifestyle. In such a situation, you will have to use a flashlight.

Beaver hunting with a gun from a boat

This method of hunting involves the hunter silently sailing a boat along a river or stream and shooting beavers. So, the equipment you need is a boat, a gun, a car headlight and a battery. It is better to hunt in this way with two people: one aims the headlight at the animal, the other shoots. The most important thing when hunting in this way is absolute silence and stillness.
It is better not to shoot at swimming animals at night. This is just extra noise, which in most cases does not bring trophies, but frightens the beavers living downstream. Collecting trophies is best done in the morning or during a second passage along the channel.

Beaver hunting rifle

Any gun can be used to hunt beavers. The best way to shoot a beaver is with a bullet. The usual shooting distance for such a hunt is 25-30 meters.

You can hunt beavers using a trap or a gun. Most hunters choose the second method of hunting, considering it more humane and interesting. Beaver hunting begins in October and continues until the end of February.

It is extremely difficult to take beavers by surprise. These are very careful animals. They settle in families, the number of individuals in which can reach 10. The territory of a beaver settlement can stretch along the shore of a natural reservoir for no less than a kilometer. The trees and shrubs surrounding their home are used to build the platinum.

Beavers build their huts with access to the water. This protects them from attacks by predators. They can remain underwater without surfacing for up to 20 minutes. Beavers have powerful incisors. From them you can determine the age of the animal. In adults they grow up to 9 cm, and in young ones their length does not exceed 3 cm. The body of the animal can grow up to 120 cm in length, and they gain weight up to 35 kg.

Where to look for beaver?

When searching for an animal, you need to pay attention to the strength of the current in the reservoir. They choose quiet rivers or lakes (swamps, irrigation canals) with standing water to build their huts. The fast current is a big problem for them. They can't handle it.

When looking for a body of water, animals choose for their lives those shores that are covered with aspen, alder, birch or willow. When searching for a beaver's lodge, hunters pay attention to tree trunks with characteristic marks of the animals' incisors. They should be fresh and white. Black spots on the sections indicate that the tracks are old and you need to look for the beaver in another place.

The location of animal huts is also determined by branches that can float on the surface of the reservoir, as well as by the tracks of animals on the shore. Signs of their presence may include well-trodden paths covered with silt and holes. Experienced hunters know very well what time of day a beaver leaves its hut.

The rodent is nocturnal, so it can only be discovered after sunset. Young individuals are the first to emerge from their burrows. More cautious adult animals leave their hut some time later. If during a sally they hear rustling or cracking of branches, they will immediately hide in a hole and can sit there for more than a week.

Hunting with a gun

Firearms for beaver hunting are selected according to the person’s weight. It should be 20 times lighter than a hunter. This could be an 18 gauge shotgun or a carbine. Any hunter knows perfectly well how to properly hunt a beaver. A charge in the form of shot can ruin a beaver's skin, so they go at it with bullets.

The choice of weapon depends on the distance required for the shot. As a rule, cautious beavers do not allow humans to get very close to them. You must try to hit them with the first shot. Unlike a trap, in which it is unknown who will fall into it and when, a hunter with a gun can independently choose the specimen he likes to kill.

When hunting a rodent with a gun, a person must approach it from the leeward side. The hiding place is set up on the bank opposite the beaver huts. It is not necessary to build a hut or any other shelter for her. Hunters hide behind trees and bushes. They arrive at the place in the late afternoon.

In autumn, a lot of dry leaves and branches accumulate on the ground, which can make rustling and crackling noises. Therefore, the hiding place is cleared of them. Any noise and even a splash of water can alert the animal. For hunting, when a person has to patiently wait for prey for several hours, equipment is required. Mandatory items include the following:

• gun. It must be well targeted;
• waterproof clothing and boat;
• loot bag;
• car headlight for illumination with battery.

You can replace the battery and headlight with a high-power flashlight. It is better to wear boots made of urethane foam with thermal inserts on your feet. Experienced hunters recommend that beginners go beaver hunting in the fall with a gun loaded with 6.5 mm buckshot. Such a charge can provide the necessary accuracy of fire. The average distance for such charges is 25 meters.

Most often, in Russia, guns of the brands IZH-18, IZH-2, Saiga-12, as well as MTs-20 and MTs-21 are used for hunting beavers. The optimal weapon is one that can be used to hit an animal in the eye from 50 meters away.

Before hunting, any gun is sighted. To test the penetrating power of the charge, a board with a thickness of 30 to 40 cm is used.

Rodents leave their huts at dusk and work until 6-7 o'clock in the morning. While waiting for a beaver in a blind, a hunter may encounter a muskrat. You can't shoot at her. Having heard a shot, a beaver will not come out of its hole for a very long time. You can’t rush to shoot even when he appears on the surface. It is necessary to hit the animal with the first shot. After a hit, you must immediately rush to the prey and be ready to finish off the animal.

You need to shoot at the animal's head or its front part. It is very important to cause as little damage to the animal’s skin as possible. Beaver fur is used for clothing and is in quite high demand. The wounded beaver continues to swim, so without a boat and a lantern it is impossible to find and get it. Autumn beaver meat tastes like salmon.

The advantage of hunting with a gun is that a person always sees his prey.

Autumn catching beaver with traps

You can replace a gun for hunting with a trap or trap. Their mechanism should not have defects. A malfunction of the trap leads to injury to the animal, but not to its capture. Before installing a trap or trap, you must carefully select a place for it. The following conditions must be met:

• the place must have signs of frequent presence of the animal;
• At the site where traps and traps are installed, nothing should interfere with their operation.

As a rule, beaver dams, their rookeries, small canals, and animal trails are chosen as places to install animal catching equipment. The most frequently visited places by the animal are dams. For a hunter, they are the most accessible and convenient for setting traps. Beavers visit dams more often than other places.

Rodents make animal trails to their feeding areas.. Autumn is the peak time for stockpiling. These trails are the second most likely to catch prey. Hunters prefer to set traps on feeding trails not only in autumn, but also in winter. They are laid by animals in the form of channels. It is best to install walk-through traps in them.

Manufacturers produce traps of various types. The most common of them are devices of the compressive operating principle. Such traps are often called plate traps. They are quite powerful. For beaver hunting, traps No. 5 and No. 7 are used. No more than 1 trap should be installed in one beaver settlement. A beaver with excellent hearing, hearing the sound of a triggered trap, will understand that he is being hunted. It is unlikely that any of the animals will fall into the second trap, so after a successful hunt it is repeated no earlier than a week later.

Such devices are not without drawbacks. They are difficult to disguise and do not always work. Dish traps are designed to capture only the animal's paw. This does not guarantee 100% capture of the animal. Very often, an animal caught in a trap bites off its own paw in order to free itself.

Traps KP-250 are considered more reliable. Their principle of operation is the same as that of mousetraps. The mechanism of the device is configured to capture the animal's neck, not its paws. In such traps, the prey dies very quickly, which saves it from a long and painful death. The effectiveness of KP-250 traps is estimated at 100%.

The optimal option for installing traps is considered to be the entrance to huts and channels leading to animal food supplies. The main feature of how to hunt beaver with a trap is careful preparation of the site. Beginners to this type of hunting are not recommended to set traps themselves.

It is better to search for beaver habitats without a dog. The smell of a dog can cause animals to be very careful or change their habitat.

To catch beavers in water, traps are set at different depths. If they are placed to fix the front paws of animals, then the installation depth should be 1-2 cm, for the hind limbs - from 5 to 10 cm. A feature of the autumn installation of traps is the importance of their placement on level ground and fixation on it.

Features of autumn hunting

In autumn, beavers prepare food for the winter. During this period of time, animals behave very actively. Autumn hunting for them is very productive. Only bad weather can interfere with the hunt. It greatly complicates the installation of traps. Setting traps in the rain is quite difficult. It is no less unpleasant to watch for animals near their huts in a rainstorm. Traps placed for beavers in the fall must be secured to the ground. Otherwise, the animals will throw them off.

Hunting permit

The existing procedure for beaver hunting in the Russian Federation requires obtaining a special license. It can be of two types. Legal entities issue a one-time administrative license for hunting. Such a document can also be obtained by single hunters. The second type of document is a long-term license.

Documents are issued based on an application, passport, hunting license and a receipt confirming payment of the state fee. The document contains information about the license holder and its validity period. It also contains information about the age of the animal allowed for hunting. Issuance of licenses begins in early October. Until this time, you can only explore the habitats of beavers and determine their numbers.

We met Yuri Nikishkin at the office of the Berezovskaya ROS RGOO "BOOR", he specially came to talk with the journalist of "Wildlife" when I was visiting the regional organizational structure. This meeting would not have taken place without the mediation of the director of the Berezovsky ROS RGOO "BOOR" Alexander Lisenkov, for which I thank him very much.

Let's introduce our today's hero in more detail. Such people are usually called naturalists. A naturalist is an amateur zoologist, without an academic education, but with a great love for nature, with keen powers of observation and a penchant for systematizing and recording the material received. Notes, drawings, observations, and more recently, videography – all about the beaver! Yuri was introduced to me as a man who knows everything (or almost everything) about beavers and hunting them.

What does Yuri do when he's not hunting? He is the director of a car service center, although this has nothing to do with our topic.

I also came to Bereza to hunt beaver, but I’ll say right away that during my only evening raid into the grounds I couldn’t even see the animal - only traces of its vigorous activity and farewell circles on the water.

We talked with Yuri for quite a long time, and, of course, I asked him why the “light like a wedge” converged on the beaver. To which he replied: “This hunt seems to be specially designed for a busy person. It requires minimal preparation and takes literally one and a half to two evening hours. Moreover, it happens in places that have been explored for a long time. For a city dweller, caught up in work, this is exactly what he needs. In addition, this is a very exciting activity and literally a bottomless source for observations, photography and videography.”

Yuri hunts both with the help of traps and with a rifle. When he sent me on a hunt, he gave me some tips for shooting beaver. And then he talked about hunting animals with the help of self-catchers, about cooking beaver meat and about the beaver stream. The information for those who hunt or are planning to go “hunt” this animal is very interesting. However, judge for yourself.

With a gun

Do not be noisy! This is the main advice. The main mistake of those who go on a beaver hunt is to make their way to the hiding place along the bank of a reservoir, most often a reclamation canal. Remember that the banks of the canal are pitted with beaver holes, and as you make your way along the bank, you are literally walking “over the heads” of the animals. Having heard you while still underground, they will never appear on the surface.

You need to approach the ambush site not parallel, but perpendicular to the shore - directly to the ambush, as quietly as possible and immediately sit down in a previously prepared camouflaged place. It’s better to spend an extra 10 minutes and approach the hunting area very carefully than to “make some noise” and force the animal to hide in a hole for the next three hours.

“I served in the Urals, and hunters from the Khanty people showed me a very good way of approaching a cautious animal, if there is no other way to avoid making noise,” says Yuri. – Everything is extremely simple. You walk together, completely openly - rest assured, the animal hears you, but does not see you - pass by a reservoir, while one hunter remains in hiding, and the other, still in no hurry, leaves. The animal gets the complete impression that the person came, trampled and left.

The wind, if there is any, must necessarily blow from the animal towards you, worse if it blows along the reservoir, and you certainly should not allow the wind to blow from you towards the animal - in this case, hunting will not work, the beaver has an excellent sense of smell and hearing. And one more thing about the weather - if it rains, even lightly, drizzling, don’t expect a beaver. It wasn't that he was afraid of the rain. The animal simply does not come out because of the noise of the rain, which limits its acute hearing, and because of the falling drops, which interfere with the spread of odors.

Remember that hunting time is sunset, so you need to choose a hiding place in advance so that you sit facing west. In the light of the sunset, which is also reflected from the water, the animal is easy to spot, and the rear sight and front sight of the gun are very clearly visible.

As a rule, you have to shoot at a swimming animal. The shorter the shot distance, the better. It is useless to shoot at a swimming animal from 25 meters.

The ideal option is to shoot a beaver that has come onto land, but such luck rarely happens. To attract beavers to land, they use a scent-based bait based on a stream. How to do this, read below.

The rules allow shooting at a beaver only with a bullet and buckshot with a diameter of at least 6.2 mm. It is best to aim at the animal's head, and from a minimum distance. If you sit quietly in the blind, then you can easily let the beaver come up to 8 meters.

But sometimes a beaten animal drowns. To search for it and extract it from the reclamation canal, Yuri uses a simple device - a telescopic fishing rod with the upper knee removed and the largest fishing hook - a “tee” - attached to the remaining part. With the help of such a device, it is easy to find and remove a hunted beaver if the hunt takes place in a reclamation canal.

With traps

The animal is caught in traps to preserve its skin. But, unfortunately, beaver pelts are not currently valued in our country. And this despite the fact that beaver breeding on fur farms is problematic. In Canada, for example, a hunter, having handed over a beaver pelt to a state procurement office, receives 30 dollars in his hands: not God knows what, but gasoline, ammunition and traps “beat off” such prices. Yuri told me this too - as I wrote above: he knows everything about beavers.

A few words about modernizing traps. It is best to tie the installed trap not with a cable, as is most often done, but with a thin chain. The chain is very compact, it can be collected literally in a handful, and therefore traps equipped with chains are much easier to transport, carry and install than those equipped with cables.

The most successful places to install plate traps

It is best to install beaver traps in the following places:

1. At the crossings over the beaver dam. In these places, the beaver trail is sometimes clearly visible and sometimes less noticeable. In addition, beavers often make crossings in the narrowest places of the dam. One way or another, the place of transition can always be found upon careful examination. The location for placing the trap is not chosen on the trail.
2. A good way to set a trap is by partially destroying the dam. However, “destruction” is a strong word. It is necessary to disassemble the dam a little from above in order to create a small leak - a stream. Such a leak prompts beavers to vigorous activity to eliminate it. In this case, the trap is not installed in the stream itself, but nearby. When installed on the leak itself, there is a high probability that it will become clogged with debris brought by the current, or with branches brought by animals to repair the dam.
3. An excellent place to set a trap is on the feeding table. Beavers are neat, “respectable” animals that prefer an orderly life. Therefore, they eat in the same places, which for some reason seem convenient to them. They are usually called “feed tables”. They are usually easy to identify by their chewed branches and entrance path.
4. If you are hunting on a reclamation canal, then an excellent place to set a trap is at the place where it narrows. This installation provides a greater likelihood of an animal hitting it and deprives it of the opportunity to drown.
5. A good place to set a trap is on the exit trail, in the area that beavers use to enter and exit the canal or lake. There may be a couple of dozen such trails; you won’t have enough traps. How to encourage the animal to take the “charged” path? A scent bait will help us with this. It is made on the basis of a beaver stream. More on this below.

–I check the traps set on Friday on Sunday; If I’m not sure that I can check them on Sunday, then I don’t set up traps, says Yuri.

A beaver, caught even by the paw and in a place where it is impossible to drown, without being able to move and hide in a hole, dies quite quickly from the cold, so you need to check the traps a day, maximum two, after they are installed.

If the trap is installed in water - and in most cases this is what happens - they place it shallow, about five centimeters, no more, but no less!

Castoreum

The beaver stream is the name given to the paired musk glands of the beaver, located at the base of the tail. This substance is called differently: castroleum, beaver musk, beaver stream, beaver stream. This material, produced by the secretory glands of the beaver, is characterized by a brownish color and a strong musky odor. The jet has long been used by people in official and folk medicine.

Based on his experience, Yuri advises the following. Immediately after harvesting the animal, we separate the stream from the carcass. If you want the meat to remain of high quality, then forget about all the tips on separating the stream that are described in books. We do it as follows: with our left hand we grab the skin under the tail of the animal along with the testes and the easily palpable paired gland - the jet itself. Using a sharp knife, cut it all off along with the skin. Next, the cut off part along with the knife you used to do all this, put it aside. Take another knife and then we use it to remove the skin and gut the carcass. If you use the same knife that you used to cut off the gland, the beaver meat will indeed have an unpleasant odor.

What about the skin, you ask? Yes, there will be a small, not fundamental flaw, but our goal is to preserve the meat.

The stream is extracted from the cut-off part and dried, preferably in the fresh air and always in the shade. You don't have to protect it from flies; they don't land on it. Any manipulations with the jet are not carried out in the apartment and, preferably, not even on the balcony.

We won’t talk much about the beneficial properties of the jet. Let us only recall that its main effect on the body is immunostimulating. We warn those who buy a jet infusion for a lot of money: this is not Viagra, the properties of which the jet does not possess.

Properly dried stream is very hard. Even with a knife it is difficult to plan, but it can be cut perfectly with metal scissors or garden pruning shears.

Above we wrote about scent bait; a jet tincture is used as it. To prepare it, pour one half of the paired gland into a half-liter bottle (hunters say “one egg”) and fill it with ethyl alcohol with a strength of no lower than 50 and no higher than 70 percent. Pervach vodka with 56% alcohol content is excellent for these purposes.

The finished tincture has the color of strongly brewed tea, and when looking at the bottle against the light, it gives off a cherry tint. This tincture, in addition to its medicinal use, is also used as a scent lure.

Using scent bait

Let's return to the moment when we need to ensure that the beaver goes exactly to the path where we set the trap, and not to any other. This is done simply - a few spoons of jet tincture are sprayed onto the path, in the area where the trap is installed. You can also use the “thickness”, which will remain with us after we filter the finished tincture. It is also useful to add a spoonful of tincture to the water if it happens in a lake.

Scent bait is also used in rifle hunting, when it is necessary to lure a beaver to the shore. This is usually done when hunting on lakes; in this case, shooting an animal on the water risks the carcass simply drowning.

– When you apply bait, you can see, – Yuri says , - how a beaver serenely floating on the water suddenly seems to stumble upon an invisible wall, stops, raises its head, and then hurries to the shore to find out what kind of impudent person has come to its lands.

The fact is that the beaver – it is a strictly territorial animal. The beaver family occupies a certain water area of ​​the reservoir and the adjacent section of the shore, and no other beaver is allowed to appear here. Violation of this border is, according to the “beaver laws”, a challenge on the verge of a crime. And people use this to their advantage.

Meat

Beaver meat is a product that you need to know how to get, preserve and cook. We have already described methods of extraction and partly preservation. But let’s dwell a little more on the nuances.

There is an opinion that beaver liver is inedible due to its bitterness. Bitterness may indeed be present, but only if the liver along with the gall bladder was broken by a shot, if the carcass lay in water for a long time and began to deteriorate, or if the carcass was handled indelicately. A hunted beaver should not be thrown into the trunk or onto the ground. Handle the carcass carefully and you will get delicious liver and meat of acceptable quality.

If liver is a delicacy, then you need to know how to cook meat. So, the recipe for making beaver meat from Yuri Nikishkin:

Beaver cutlets

Ingredients: 1 kg of beaver meat, separated from bones; 0.5 kg of onions; 0.5 kg of lard, salt, garlic, ground black pepper and other spices to taste.

Cut the meat into pieces and soak for a day in water with a little vinegar. Then pass it through a meat grinder with a large grid. Add finely chopped onion and lard to the minced meat. Then add salt, garlic and spices.

Form the resulting minced meat into medium-sized cutlets and fry them thoroughly in a frying pan on both sides. Then place the cutlets in a saucepan, pour in tomato paste diluted in water to the consistency of tomato juice, and simmer over low heat until tender.

This bait is one of the top 5 beaver baits in North America - Dobbin's Back Breaker is an extra-class beaver bait. With this tool, you can easily force the beaver to come exactly to the place you want. Very effectively used in combination s. Best used for castor mounds.

It is capable of attracting an animal to the place where the trap is installed in one day with an almost 100% guarantee. The bait works all year round, but is most effective in late spring.

• Weight: 90 gr.
• Volume: 30 ml.

Using bait in a mound installation.

• 1) make an artificial climb (preferably a new one)
• 2) 2 handfuls of dirt
• 3) a couple of twigs nibbled by a beaver (for better visualization)
• 3) dip the stick into a tube with bait and place or place it on this mound
• 4) in case of installing a Passage Trap, we make a “fence” so that it does not go around from the side
• 5) in the case of installing a loop, this is not actually required, except perhaps a couple to maintain the direction.
• That’s it, we come to pick up the trophy, usually if they are nearby it’s the next day :)))

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They are quite valuable and will be useful in any household. Only the animal must be obtained unharmed, so hunters began to use different methods of catching beavers at different times of the year. Only in this matter not everything is so simple, this animal is so strong and intelligent - the beaver. How to catch, how not to be outlawed, what fishing methods are better - you can read about this in this article.

Weapons - pros and cons

Probably the most common way to obtain a dead animal is to use a gun. But this method does not always bring only advantages.

Pros:

Quick killing of an animal. The hunter saw the beaver, shot, and got the killed animal. No need to fuss with anything.

Bullet range. Is the animal far away? A well-aimed shot will allow you to hit the target and not miss the prey.

Simplicity and ease of use. The weapon is not that heavy and does not require additional knowledge, so it is quite easy to handle.

Minuses:

Dead animal. Sometimes it is necessary to get the animal alive.

Skin damage. If you need to get a whole skin, then a gun will not work, because a bullet or shot will destroy its integrity.

Trap

If we are talking about how to catch a beaver, then you should immediately pay attention to trap hunting. Of course, this matter has its own difficulties, so you need to be prepared for them right away.

Selecting a trap

The beaver is a strong and fast animal. Therefore, it is necessary to choose a good trap. The seventh trap with rounded arcs will be the best option. Of course, you can look at other options for this type of beaver fishing, but do not forget about the physical characteristics of the rodent.

Installation location

Before setting a trap, you need to carefully inspect the area and find the most favorable place where the beaver often appears. How to catch someone in a trap after good reconnaissance will remain a matter of time. During observation, it is worth paying attention to the places where the animal comes onto land, where there is a place to obtain food and other materials for its life.

Direct installation

At first glance, it may seem that setting a trap is quite simple. But in reality everything is different. If we talk about how to catch a beaver in a trap, it is also worth mentioning the maximum caution of the hunter. In addition, we must not forget about our own safety.

In most cases, this hunting tool is installed in water, so it is necessary to mount it in such a way that the animal does not see the danger, but at the same time, so that the mechanism works in time. At shallow depths, you can put a trap on the bottom, and if it is installed in a place where it is quite deep, then you should resort to using wooden stakes and a cable so that the rodent cannot go ashore.

For camouflage, you can use special objects, as well as natural conditions. You can simply agitate the water to cover the trap with sand and other small debris.

Beaver catching in winter

Probably many people believe that the beaver sleeps in winter. Only in reality this does not happen, beavers simply reduce their activity, so it is worth raising the question of how to catch a beaver in winter.

It’s worth saying right away that winter hunting is not an easy task and requires a lot of effort, especially physically.

Preparing the hunting site

Winter rodent fishing itself begins in the fall. When ice has not yet appeared in the reservoir, it is necessary to find the deepest place where the beaver settlement is located. And mark it. This is necessary so that in winter you can easily find a place for future installation of the trap.

When the ice is of normal thickness to support the weight of a person, you can start hunting. In the marked place you need to make a hole measuring 50x50 cm. You need to find a small tree trunk of the appropriate length. One end of the prepared tree is stuck into the bottom of the reservoir so that the trunk stands at an angle of 35-45%, and the other should stick out above the ice.

Installing a trap

The answer to how to catch a beaver in winter involves using a trap. Accordingly, after preparing the ice hole, it is necessary to begin its installation. But first of all, it’s worth preparing a special strong platform so that the mechanism stands firmly. A small block of wood can be an excellent assistant in making it.

You also need to prepare a broom from aspen branches (beaver bait). You can, of course, use another tree, but it is best to take aspen, the branches of which should not exceed a length of more than 1 meter.

After all the necessary preparations, you can install the trap. The platform with the trap is placed in the middle of the ice hole, then a broom is lowered at a distance of about 50 cm. After that, all that remains is to wait for the beast.

Other ways to catch beaver

Trap is the most effective and common option. There are also other ways to catch a beaver. Before the advent of the above mechanism, hunters caught it with the help of dogs. They drove the animal out of their house, and the dogs drove it to the desired location, where a trap or noose was set.

At this point we can talk about how to catch a beaver with a noose. Only this method of catching an animal is illegal, and the complexity is much greater than catching using the previously mentioned mechanism.

Beaver hunting period

In order not to come under the close attention of law enforcement agencies, you need to remember the period of this hunt. Basically, in all regions it is allowed in the cold season, namely from autumn to spring.