Proceedings of the Vertebrate Pest Conference

Beaver populations, extirpated in the previous century, have returned to the South often causing severe damage to timber and other resources. Many landowners perceive trapping programs as being ineffectual, perhaps because most programs are overwhelmed with immigrant beavers. To quantify immigration patterns, from November 1984 to May 1985, resident beaver were removed from a 1,619 ha study area in west Tennessee and for the next 40 months immigrants were captured within one month of immigration. Removal patterns of the resident population (169 beavers) suggest that bounty systems may be ineffectual to protect natural resources. Immigration was low (5.5 beavers) June to September and significantly (P≤0.05) higher (46.4 beavers) October to May.