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 32 beaver trapping through ice DHJanzen100905.jpg high resolution
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| As mentioned earlier, beaver trapping by Europeans was done with iron leg-hold traps for centuries (and still is done this way in many areas, since leg-hold traps are smaller, lighter and much cheaper than Conibear traps). Here, in another life (1960, junior year at the University of Minnesota), I am holding a standard method for trapping beaver through beaver pond ice in the winter. A hole is cut through the ice with an ice chisel and the pole with its trap and bait (see image DHJanzen100905.jpg below) put down through the ice into the water where the beaver will find the bundle of twigs and in getting at them, put its foot in the trap, be caught, and drown. Note the sunglasses in my left hand, necessary to avoid snowblindness from many hours of glare walking across snow to the beaver pond. The rubber hip boots are for wading in deep cold water at the beaver dam, and the snowshoes are for walking on top of deep snow. The white collar on the mitten on my right hand (and stuffed under my right arm) is sheep wool with naturally occurring lanolin in it to keep the skin on my hands from being severely chapped from frequent imersion in very cold water. | ||
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