This was a first for me with a beaver in a cage trap. This is a Comstock Beaver cage trap. Looks like I missed a rock so the bedding of the cage was off, but it did its job anyway. This is the first catch I got on camera! I thought it was pretty impressive!
Posted by Buchanan’s Wildlife Solutions on Thursday, March 3, 2016
Thanks to Mike, owner of Buchanan’s Wildlife Solutions, for sharing his first experience using the 12x18x39 Wide Comstock Live Beaver Cage Trap to humanely live trap and remove a problem beaver.
There’s a great deal that can be gleaned from this video. First, the beaver was not only unharmed in any way physically, he shows no stress or negative reaction to the powered cage doors closing. The beaver remains calm, moving about the cage as if nothing had happened, important for those concerned about the humane capture and treatment of animals.
These cage traps were designed to take beaver in water while they are swimming. It is recommended that the trap be set in at least 8 inches of water, upside down, preferably 10 inches, when live trapping so that there is a large enough air space for the beaver to breath and enough water for the beaver to swim over the doors without disturbing them. In this case the trap was set in what appears to be only about 4 inches of water, which is a bit risky. When a large beaver walks on a door as he did in this instance, the door hook could become prematurely dislodged and allow the door to fire before the beaver has hit the trigger. But, with 20 pounds of pressure on each door and a stable relationship between door hook and door, this large beaver walked right into the cage without issue. Even a wobbly cage on the rocks did not affect the positive outcome.
Our slogan has been, “there’s no wrong way to set a Comstock Cage Trap.” Comstock Beaver Cage Traps can be set in pretty much any manner, in 10 inches of water for live trapping, in deep water where it is illegal to live trap and also on land in trails etc. Traps will also work when set sideways in narrow runs. Trappers come up with new innovative ways in which to set these cage traps regularly. With no external components to snag or fowl, nothing inside the trap to break, a large wide opening in a trap with unparalleled stability, these cage traps offer alternatives in a device with no equal to capture anything that inhabits a pond, beaver, otter, nutria, muskrats, turtles, fish, even alligators.
Thanks again for sharing this video.