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  1. #1
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    Default Beaver aggression?

    Hello all. I just finished moving my camp 400 feet or so away from a beaver lodge...I spent a couple of hours hanging out by a beautiful beaver pond in ny, and was getting ready to go to sleep in my hammock when I got one beaver tail slap and a couple of swim bys. I was set up about 25 feet from the water's edge, and the beaver lodge was around 75 feet out in the pond. Was I stupid to set up there to begin with? I'm learning that beavers are nocturnal. Was I likely to get a visitor?
    Lazarus

  2. #2

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    Beavers are protective of their space...just like us. I wouldon't phrase it in terms of you being agresdive if I went into your garage to rummage around, start a campfire

  3. #3
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    Default Beaver aggression?

    When I was a kid we used to fish for herring downstream of beaver dams in our creek. They would sneak up right next to us and slap that tail down to scare us off. That's about as aggressive as they get in my experience.
    You can walk in another person's shoes, but only with your feet

  4. #4
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    I'm thinking you will be OK. Unless you are near the lodge of one of the famous Up-State NY "Man eating Beavers" They usually only come out when the moon is full. I can just see one knawing on one of the trees you are hanging from.

  5. #5
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    I do agree...it was culturally insensitive of me to be so close...
    Lazarus

  6. #6

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    set up a tent and attempted to sleep in your home. Tail slaps are displays that you are too close. Move away. The louder, more forceful, and frequent the slaps more irritated they are. They will swim faster and linger in an area getting closer and closer and may attempt to splash you or even get out of the water when it quiets down nearing to investigate if you are pereceived as threatening their territory. Back off Move on Give them space. I see it as a dogs snarl, lowered ears and tail. That's not the time to put a hand in front of their face.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by moldy View Post
    I'm thinking you will be OK. Unless you are near the lodge of one of the famous Up-State NY "Man eating Beavers" They usually only come out when the moon is full. I can just see one knawing on one of the trees you are hanging from.
    Know why we have no crocs or alligators up here in Canada?
    … if you want aggressive beavers, come on up! …

    * - * - * - * - * - * - * - *

    (Actually, in forty years of paddling up here, I’ve never seen an aggressive beaver. Never.)

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Traillium View Post
    Know why we have no crocs or alligators up here in Canada?
    … if you want aggressive beavers, come on up! …

    * - * - * - * - * - * - * - *

    (Actually, in forty years of paddling up here, I’ve never seen an aggressive beaver. Never.)
    my beaver sighting experiences consist of once seeing a log floating 50 feet or so from the shore of a pond suddenly change direction and start going back the other way before suddenly diving under water as well as twice seeing sudden movement out of the corner of my eye and then hearing a splash as i walked by a beaver dam.

    the latter gave me a great idea- if we have to put up with detouring around beaver dams when they flood our hiking trails, the least they could do is sit there and let us take their picture. their oughta be a law requiring them to pose.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dogwood View Post
    set up a tent and attempted to sleep in your home. Tail slaps are displays that you are too close. Move away. The louder, more forceful, and frequent the slaps more irritated they are. They will swim faster and linger in an area getting closer and closer and may attempt to splash you or even get out of the water when it quiets down nearing to investigate if you are pereceived as threatening their territory. Back off Move on Give them space. I see it as a dogs snarl, lowered ears and tail. That's not the time to put a hand in front of their face.
    yup. it was the prospect of sleeping with my @@S 6" off the ground that convinced me it was time to move.
    Lazarus

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    Quote Originally Posted by Traillium View Post
    Know why we have no crocs or alligators up here in Canada?
    … if you want aggressive beavers, come on up! …

    * - * - * - * - * - * - * - *

    (Actually, in forty years of paddling up here, I’ve never seen an aggressive beaver. Never.)
    Actually, its because alligators lack sex determined chromosomes. Their sex is determined by incubation temperature between 30-34 C. The embryos are all one sex outside the range and the species cannot survive and reproduce.

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by MuddyWaters View Post
    Actually, its because alligators lack sex determined chromosomes. Their sex is determined by incubation temperature between 30-34 C. The embryos are all one sex outside the range and the species cannot survive and reproduce.
    … Perhaps that’s why I have no …

    (I’ll take an extra quilt to sleep outside tonight …)

  12. #12
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    I think I have found some video of Laz's beaver encounter...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ0ikxq0gX8
    “For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
    the saddest are these, 'It might have been.”


    John Greenleaf Whittier

  13. #13
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    Unfortunately it a appears as if you forgot to consult the demolition plans at the town hall. The trees you hung from were apparently next up to be cleared and that will get them quite upset.

    I suspect simple dumb luck in terms of being in a spot they wanted to be; the lodges have a few pop-ups and other entrances, hidey holes, ect. away from the main lodge so you could have been camped right at the side door and not known it. If there was a clean little trail from water to camp... could be you were on the front walkway.

    I've had the canoe slapped a few times but that was from getting right up in their faces.
    Beavers are pretty neat... but they are also just big rats with buck teeth and a tail that got squashed by a tree... so don't give them too much credit.

  14. #14

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    Quote Originally Posted by 1azarus View Post
    yup. it was the prospect of sleeping with my @@S 6" off the ground that convinced me it was time to move.

    You probably did the right thing. Beavers will stand on their hind legs to reach higher. Have you seen the heights at which they can chew down saplings or trees ? They can forage up higher with their bodies outstretched to reach tender buds(butts) and branch(Mr Happy) tips. Feel sorry for you if you sleep on your stomach. They can move surprisingly fast both in and out of the water. If they chew through wood imagine the damage that can be inflicted if they bit you. Give them their space.

  15. #15
    ME => GA 19AT3 rickb's Avatar
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    What?

    No one has seen fit to post a link to the killer Russian beaver on YouTube yet. OK, I will spare every one.

    On a more serious note, as a kid I was fortunate enough to to visit Beaver Sprite in upstate NY.

    Famous in the day, the woman who owned the place litterally invited beaver into her home — her windowed garage was transformed into a transition area — and allowed them into the living room with her and her visitors.

    A good, fun and readable book on beaver that I really enjoyed:

    https://www.amazon.com/Lily-Pond-Yea.../dp/087795979X

  16. #16
    Registered User BuckeyeBill's Avatar
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    What did Daddy Phil do on Duck Dynasty--- oh that's right, KABOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Blackheart

  17. #17
    ME => GA 19AT3 rickb's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dogwood View Post
    You probably did the right thing. Beavers will stand on their hind legs to reach higher. Have you seen the heights at which they can chew down saplings or trees ? They can forage up higher with their bodies outstretched to reach tender buds(butts) and branch(Mr Happy) tips. Feel sorry for you if you sleep on your stomach. They can move surprisingly fast both in and out of the water. If they chew through wood imagine the damage that can be inflicted if they bit you. Give them their space.
    We found beaver chews 10 feet or so off the ground at Gordon Pond (Blue Blaze off the AT not far north of Kinsman Notch, good camping).

    I told my wife that it was proof that beavers could climb trees in NH. I think she believed me for a bit, before she fingered it out.

  18. #18

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    Beavers can actually be pretty docile, but like people...some are just grumpy.

  19. #19
    Registered User Just Bill's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rocketsocks View Post
    Beavers can actually be pretty docile, but like people...some are just grumpy.
    True... and much like people;
    Some cougars have beaver aggression.

  20. #20

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    Quote Originally Posted by Just Bill View Post
    True... and much like people;
    Some cougars have beaver aggression.
    I stay far away from them, that spread deceases like cat scratch fever.

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