Beaver catch - night 1
Hi I'm Alex, the Mammal Keeper at Martin Mere. Last night I spent the night in the warden's Tower. I brought my portable hammock, which is really comfy and much better than the floor or chairs as i have slept on in previous catches!
The first night went alright, at midnight I went down to the enclosure and in one of the traps was one of this years kits. The little guy (although we can't actually tell if it is male or female) was looking really well. I weighed the kit, which was a healthy 8kg and also microchipped him.
I got up again at around 3.30 - 4am and was really pleased to find another beaver had been caught! This time is was one of last years Kits, who is now more of a teenager than a baby. This juvenile was also looking really well and weighed a fantastic 15kg, we moved him to a special temporary enclosure, where he will be kept until the other two junveniles are caught.
How we weigh them?
We have special crates, which we put up against the cage/trap to move them from one to the other, this is a really hard as they are really strong.
We have weighed the crate empty first and once we have caught a beaver we weigh them in the crate and on hard ground to get an accurate reading. Again this is a work out in itself, lifting a 15 kg beaver and a crate!
