Abstract
FOR some seventy years before 1917, the State of Pennsylvania possessed no beavers, and in that year two, imported from Wisconsin, were set free. Between 1917 and 1924, 94 beavers were imported and liberated at a cost of about 50 dollars each. So rapidly did the creatures multiply that it soon became necessary to transfer some to other parts of the State.' A survey by the Board of Game Commissioners gives an idea of what the increase meant: in 1931 there were 899 beaver dams with an estimated population of 4,377 ; in 1934, the population had risen to 15,000. During the trapping season of 1934 the number of beavers taken was 6,455, and the pelts brought the trappers a sum total of 22,610 dollars. Wherever beavers are doing damage, as in farming communities or in irrigation areas, the policy of the U.S. Bureau of Biological Survey has been to encourage and aid in the transference of the animals to carefully selected sites where their dam building may aid in the cause of conservation. To further this policy, the Bureau has published a Farmers Bulletin (No. 1768) on "Trapping and Transplanting Live Beavers", in which live-beaver traps are described and trapping methods and transport are discussed for the help of farmers, stockmen, foresters and others interested in beaver control
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Economic Value of an Experiment in Transplanting. Nature 140, 101 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/140101a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/140101a0