Syracuse.com - Moravia taxidermist tells of two huge beavers that he thought could have attacked his hunting dog

[HuntingNY-News]

"I plan to tan them up and use them for pelts. Either one could make a coat for a little kid," said Jon VanNest.

Mike Greenlar/The Post-Standardxxxxxxx

Jon VanNest, a taxidermist and meat processor from Moravia, told me this week about two, huge beaver skins he now has in his shop.

One came from a 79-pounder; the other, from a 72-pounder.

“They were both trapped in a duck hunting swamp I lease down off Route 38, between Cascade and Moravia at the southern end of Owasco Lake,” he said. “I plan to tan them up and use them for pelts. Either one could make a coat for a little kid.”

VanNest said he first encountered them in early November. He said usually beavers see a human, smack their tails on the water and disappear. Not these critters.

“They stayed about 10 feet off the bow of my boat. I could have almost hit one with my oar. They were acting aggressive,” he said.

VanNest said he read years ago in a national outdoors magazine that big beavers can get territorial and have been known to swim under a hunting dog in the water and tear at its stomach. He has a trusty, 100-pound, male Labrador retriever and wasn’t going to take any chances, he said.

“I told the guy who owns the property and he got ahold of a trapper, who was successful in trapping them,” he said. The trapper ended up handing over the skins to VanNest.

“We were joking afterward that the 79-pounder was some kind of state record or something,” he said, adding the largest beaver he’d ever seen before this weighed 65 pounds.

“It was road kill and the guy wanted it mounted. I had a heck of a time getting a form (which the pelt is draped around for a mount). That was about 15 years ago,” VanNest said.

Steve Joule, regional wildlife manager at the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Cortland office, said the two beavers in VanNest’s shop “aren’t too far out of the typical range.

“Beavers average anywhere from 25 to 65 pounds,” he said. “I’ve heard of some in the 80-pound range in the North Country.”

Joule said dominant beavers “will stand their ground and bluff.

“I’ve never heard of one attacking a dog, though” he said.

Meanwhile, VanNest said he’s had four wild boar brought in for processing by hunters this fall.

“Two of them were sows, two were boars. The largest was about 400 pounds,” he said, adding he’s working on trophy mounts of the two boars.

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog