How far will beaver swim under the ice

[Daslogster]

Looking for any trappers personal experience with beavers. A place I have been trapping for just over a year has a large lodge and dam (about 60' wide) damming an approx 2.5 acre pond on a piece of land I do not have access to. There is a small channel about 6' wide and 4' deep , 20' long, connecting it to a small maybe 1/2 acre pond that I have been trapping. The dam and lodge are about 200 yds away from the channel and last year I started setting in the channel under ice in the spring when the water started opening up around the edges of the pond and started getting beavers immediately. They have pretty well decimated the trees surrounding their lodge and swim into the pond I trap as there is still enough trees that I will be trying for a dozen out of the pond this year. How far can they swim under ice in search of food? They went about 100yds last year to my sets and I would like to start setting sooner this year but won't waste time until open water happens closer if I have to wait.

[nube]

I'd get permission on the other side or just wait till spring. Ice will most likely be thick where you're thinking but if you're not too worried about it give it a go and see whats up. They may have dens in the bank all over and u never know

[Daslogster]

Can't get permission, there are 2 lodges and they are so active at the dam that it stays open almost all year long right in front of the dam, never froze over last year and just did 2 weeks ago for 5 days.

[KegRiver]

I don't think there is a limit to how far they can travel under the ice. How far they are likely to travel is another matter.

There is often large air pockets under the ice, especially if the water has dropped.
Some times a partially submerged log will have air trapped under some part of it, and a beaver may have several burrows into the bank all around it's pond.

I would think the more important question is why would a beaver want to use that channel after freeze-up.

Just a guess but I'd think that they spend 90 percent of their time close to the lodge and feed bed. The larger beaver will check out the dam regularly but I've seen no evidence of them going further then that. With one exception.

During breading season, January and February, the breeding couple will often leave the main house and spend a week or two alone in a love shack somewhere else on the pond.

The love shack may be nothing more then a bank burrow or it could be a old abandoned lodge.

I have seen where they will travel several hundred yards under the ice to reach such a love nest.

[nube]

I know they can go a long ways if wanted like Keg says. I have a few small creeks that the otter will live under the ices and go up and down the creek for miles and pop up where they can now and again. I really think they just find pockets of air along the way. Kinda amazing really

[antlercarver]

Through early thin ice with no snow, I have seen muskrats exhale, which made a large flat bubble on the underside of the ice. The exhaled air gathered oxygen from the water and the rat came back 30 seconds later and inhaled that bubble and now the rat had oxygen to continue swimming.
The oxygen in the water is the same oxygen that fish use, they just are better equipped to get oxygen from the water.
I have not seen beavers do that but I imagine they can.

[KegRiver]

Originally Posted by antlercarver

Through early thin ice with no snow, I have seen muskrats exhale, which made a large flat bubble on the underside of the ice. The exhaled air gathered oxygen from the water and the rat came back 30 seconds later and inhaled that bubble and now the rat had oxygen to continue swimming.
The oxygen in the water is the same oxygen that fish use, they just are better equipped to get oxygen from the water.
I have not seen beavers do that but I imagine they can.

They do, but most of the time there are enough air pockets under the ice that they don't need to.

Water levels drop leaving ice suspended above the water, air gets trapped under logs laying in the water, they have bank breathing holes, old lodges, even a Muskrat pushup can provide them with a gulp of air if the ice is thin enough for them to stick their nose through the hole and into air.