MOUNTAIN BEAVER - How to Trap Them in a Live Trap?

[Chet43]

Are Mountain beaver a nuisance and is there a season on them?  Is there an easy way to live trap them to show the grand-kids living on the property?  How skilled do you have to be to trap them? What would you use as bait?

[Oh Mah]

unclassified-may be hunted or trapped year  round. ?

[Oh Mah]

WAC 232-12-142  RCW 77-15-192  RCW 77-15-250  WAC 232-12-271

[greenhead_killer]

What’s the difference between them and reg beavers? Am I missing something?

[Skyvalhunter]

Talk about mean little SOB's. There was one on a logging road and my friend walked up to it and it chased him right up the cut bank. Must be related to a wolverine the way it acted

[Oh Mah]

Supposedly not related to any other in any way.

[Oh Mah]

https://wdfw.wa.gov/living/mtn_beavers.html

[Humptulips]

Mountain beaver, Aplodontia Rufa are the only living member of their genus. In fact their family diverged from other rodents at least 23 million years ago so you can see they are a pretty distant relative of North American Beaver, Castor Canadensis.

[JBar]

They dont seem to be a very robust critter, my GSP has killed 3 or 4 of them, couple shakes and done!

[vandeman17]

Those suckers are a pain. We get them at our property and they can do some damage. As far as I know, they are fair game

[Cylvertip]

I have heard them called "boomers." Anyone know why?   I have asked before and never gotten an answer.

[Trapper John]

I have heard them called "boomers." Anyone know why?   I have asked before and never gotten an answer.

I have heard them being called that for years.  The only ones that use that name are trappers down in Oregon.  Up here in Washington I have always heard and called them Mt. Beaver.
JC   


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The mountain beaver (Aplodontia rufa)[Note 1] is a North American rodent. It is the only living member of its genus, Aplodontia, and family, Aplodontiidae.[2] It should not be confused with true North American and Eurasian beavers, to which it is not closely related.

Other names include mountain boomer, ground bear, giant mole, gehalis, sewellel, suwellel, showhurll, showtl, and showte, as well as a number of Chinookan and other Native American terms; "mountain boomer" is a misnomer, and the animal does not make the characteristic tail slapping sound of the true beaver species. See Carraway and Verts, 1993.

[Humptulips]

I have heard them called "boomers." Anyone know why?   I have asked before and never gotten an answer.

In the early 20th century there were quite a few people that moved from Appalachia to Oregon. In certain parts of Appalachia there is a type of squirrel that apparently makes a booming sound at times and so is called a boomer. When these people settled in Oregon, Mountain Beavers reminded them of these squirrels. Apparently just in their looks as the Oregon boomer doesn't make the booming sound. Anyway the name stuck. North of The Columbia never saw immigration from those areas to any extent so we went with Mountain Beaver.

[Cylvertip]

Thanks for the info. 

[Axle]

An old 'back woods' trapper taught me how to trap when I lived in SW Oregon back in the '70s. I caught a mountain beaver one day and didn't know what it was so I took it over to his house. I always drove over to his house every time I would catch something interesting. His house was built in the late 1800s and the siding was 1x boards like you would see on a fence. There was no insulation but he had a nice wood stove that held a fire all night. He was too lazy to make improvements to the house.
Anyway, the old guy told me it was a mountain boomer. I thought it was part of his slang but still had no idea what it was. He offered to take it to the taxidermist and I let him. The taxidermist said it would cost $68 to have it mounted. I didn't have that kind of money and had no interest in a mount anyway. I just let him have it to do what he wanted with it.
For years after that, I would tell people I caught a mountain boomer. They would ask what it was. My reply - 'I haven't the foggiest idea'.

[AL WORRELLS KID]

Trappers back in the 80's would slip a few Mountain Beaver in with their Muskrat when they shipped their furs to The Seattle Fur Exchange to be auctioned off.
 The Graders would put them into a bundle and sell them as "Flats" as the Guard Hairs were pretty short and there wasn't much in the way of underfur. They still brought in around $2.00 each when bought by the European Fur Buyers, (this was when XL Muskrat were bringing around $6.00 a piece.)
 I trapped a few Mountain Beaver back when I as in High School and they were pretty easy to catch in their tunnels using a leg hold trap. I remember they had a strong odor to them (similar to a Ferret).  Doug

[wags]

Bruce,
Back in the 70's I was trapping beaver on a friends place in Lewis County out near lake creek.
Above the beaver pond was a hillside covered with alders and sword ferns. I would hear a very low "booming" sound coming off that hillside on occasion; sort of like a combination of a grouse drumming and a chuckling sound. I started looking around for the source of the sound and found the entire hillside was a mass of mountain beaver tunnels. I'm sure the booming sound was being made by mountain beavers.

[pd]

#TimeWasted

From the title I thought this would be an X-Rated post.

[bornhunter]

#TimeWasted

From the title I thought this would be an X-Rated post.

Took longer than I thought for someone to go here.

[Trapper John]

I have heard them called "boomers." Anyone know why?   I have asked before and never gotten an answer.

In the early 20th century there were quite a few people that moved from Appalachia to Oregon. In certain parts of Appalachia there is a type of squirrel that apparently makes a booming sound at times and so is called a boomer. When these people settled in Oregon, Mountain Beavers reminded them of these squirrels. Apparently just in their looks as the Oregon boomer doesn't make the booming sound. Anyway the name stuck. North of The Columbia never saw immigration from those areas to any extent so we went with Mountain Beaver.

Bruce, you are a book of knowledge.  I am always impressed with what you know.

Bruce,
Back in the 70's I was trapping beaver on a friends place in Lewis County out near lake creek.
Above the beaver pond was a hillside covered with alders and sword ferns. I would hear a very low "booming" sound coming off that hillside on occasion; sort of like a combination of a grouse drumming and a chuckling sound. I started looking around for the source of the sound and found the entire hillside was a mass of mountain beaver tunnels. I'm sure the booming sound was being made by mountain beavers.

Wags,  I trapped a lot of mountain Beaver in my Business and to tell you, now I remember hearing that sound.
The hillsides would have tunnels everywhere and that sound .......... I would hear it but  never payed any attention to it.

JC   

[Norman89]

I've heard that sounds before at my dad's place he has a green belt above his house that has always been covered with those little guys. When I spent 2 years doing septic system installs it wasn't uncommon to find a colony of mtn beavers had took up residence digging tunnels into the side of the perkholes that were dug for soil condition testing. I would start digging the drain field and suddenly you we see 3- 4 of them Squirt out of a hole and take off running was kinda neat to see them

[PolarBear]

I trapped them for Simpson for a couple of years.  I got $5 for each left front foot.

[AL WORRELLS KID]

Mountain beavers have various calls; the most frequent is a chattering produced by gnashing the tips of the lower and upper front teeth. This indicates irritation and at close range is best heeded, because mountain beavers have sharp teeth and can be swift, vicious biters if cornered

If this one is a "BOOMER' it sounds to me like it's a "BABY BOOMER"!   
Doug

[AL WORRELLS KID]

This guys been watching too many Bambi Movies!
He's lucky to come away with all his fingers. 
Doug

[AL WORRELLS KID]

Mountain Beavers can swim better than a Muskrat.

Speaking of Muskrat, here's something that attracts Rats better than Lenon's " Muskrat All Call."
 
Doug

 

[Chet43]

Is there an easy way to live trap them to show the grand-kids living on the property?  How skilled do you have to be to trap them? What would you use as bait?

[Humptulips]

I have never live trapped one so you can take this for what it is worth.
They are practically blind in my experience. I would set a trap in one of their runs and I am sure they would blunder in without any bait.

[JakeLand]

I caught several last year in live cages
I’d set the cage in about a inch of water using half a apple and carrots with a little dab of sweet rat lure and completely cover the cage with grass . The key is to spread carrots and apples out weeks ahead of time that way they know what they smell is what they are going to get

[Ebell]

I’ve had success live trapping them with using lettuce as bait and covering the trap with dark material. I used to use an old duck decoy bag. Place the trap next to an active burrow. Usually they will have their food stored in front of the entrance.  Interesting animals.

[Chet43]

Thanks for all the info really appreciate it.