Pennsylvania Game News - April 2009 - 11

slick with mud from the flooding. I eased my way across a small flat and found a nice little run the beavers were using to get from the lodge to the culvert. I placed a snare on the small mud flat and double staked it. I set a second snare in a ditch running parallel to the dirt road leading to the culvert. I placed a few aspen saplings behind the snare in hopes of enticing one of the rodents through it. Both sets seemed perfect. I used a minimum amount of guide sticks to funnel an animal through the snare and only a few inches of water flowed, so the risk of drowning the trapped animals was low. I left the site feeling confident I would have the animals trapped in a few days. I put away my equipment, took off my muddy waders and went back to my office where I sprayed the mud off of everything and hung it to dry. That evening I had a sportsmen’s club meeting. I went to the meeting dressed in a clean and pressed uniform, including a pair of highly polished boots. I figured I would check the snares after the meeting, as they were on my way home, but I didn’t really expect to catching anything. As I pulled next to the culvert I could see the snare in the ditch was undisturbed but, peering out the window, I could not find the second snare. I got out of the vehicle, turned on my flashlight and immediately made out the round shape of a 35- to 40pound beaver sitting on the mud flat. Good, I thought, that’s one. I opened the back of my truck to get my waders and realized I’d left them back at the house. Not wanting to leave the beaver in the snare any longer, and not wanting to drive an hour roundtrip to get my waders, I grabbed my catch pole and animal crate and went after him. As I slowly slipped and slid my way toward the beaver, it watched calmly until I got about five feet away — then it released its fury. It reminded me of the Tasmanian Devil in the old Bugs Bunny cartoons. It splashed in the mud and water and showered me APRIL 2009 with the murky mess. That lasted about a minute, until it decided to find shelter in a multiflora rose patch bordering the small run where I had set the snare. Once it got situated in the thorny patch he just sat there, caked in mud, looking at me with those little beady beaver eyes of his as if to say, “If you want me, come get me.” Already muddy and wet, I went in with my snare pole. The thorns from the brush tugged and pulled on my uniform and skin as I wrestled the pole through the thick brush to loop it around the beaver. I pulled the fire hydrant of an animal out and pinned him to the ground so I could use my pliers to release the lock on the snare. The entire time the beaver didn’t put up a fight; it was waiting for me to release the snare. Once I did, the “minitornado” erupted once again. I quickly grabbed its tail and the snare pole and raised it up to place it in the waiting animal carrier. It spread all four legs and refused to go in that carrier. I carried it back to the truck and found an old burlap feed sack. I laid it on the ground and lifted the top and gently led the beaver through the opening. He went in without complaint. I released the noose and took him to the nearby Clarion River where he was released. I hopped back in my truck, covered with and smelling of swamp water, blood and beaver castor. I’m glad I checked the snare after the meeting and not before. Two days later I caught the mate in the other set and released her at the same location on the river. Another incident occurred in Crawford County when I covered WCO Mark Allegro’s district while he was on vacation. A lady called our region office to report that she and her children were unable to leave the house because a raccoon would chase them around until they went back inside. When I 11

Pennsylvania Game News - April 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - April 2009