ANCHORAGE — State wildlife officials may soon have to consider getting rid of beavers at an Anchorage park after recent violent encounters between the animals and dogs.
Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Dave Battle told KTVA-TV any more reports of beavers behaving aggressively will result in their removal from the University Lake park.
“It would mean killing them,” Battle said. “That’s what we do with beavers. It’s not much good to try to relocate them. Presumably any habitat you would take them to that is good beaver habitat would already have beavers in it.”
The department has been monitoring the problem for years and signs posted around the park warn visitors about “aggressive beavers” in the lake and urge them to keep dogs out of the water.
In the latest incident Sunday, Jennifer Minderlein said she had been walking her dog along a designated off-leash trail when a beaver slapped its tail in the water and her pet went after it. The dog suffered bite wounds and required stitches.
“She had two decent bite marks and one was really, really deep,” Minderlein said. “I was really shocked at how deep her wounds actually were.”
Staff at a pet treatment facility in the area said they have seen two other dogs bitten by beavers within the last two weeks.
Battle said only one of those was reported to Fish and Game. He encouraged others who have encountered problems with beavers to contact the agency.
“You can report it on social media, you can report it to the news, but one of those calls — it would be nice — if it was to us so we can use it in our decision-making process.”
