Because I was draining the pond after not being repaired, and it was coming from another area when I caught it. I tend to place traps/ snares at entry or feeder streams/ dam crossovers, and can tell by position of the animals foot in a trap or snare what direction it came from. This time of year beaver are real susceptible to castor based lures. They present as a territorial marker for local beaver, and interest traveling beaver because they tell them the make up of the local beaver, meaning whether it is a male that is going to want to fight, or a lonesome female. An unmarked area lets the travelers know the area has not been colonized and free for the defending. Males the size of that last one pictured, are looking for open areas and they disperse earlier than the females the same size. They set up shop and the traveling females meet them enroute ,or even along the way. Pretty common this time of year to catch a male that size, that has many bites from getting chewed up by larger males, defending an established colony, because the alpha females are full of pups now. Some bites can also be from their own parents wanting them to leave the colony before the new pups arrive. It's common in rivers to see beaver traveling during the daylight hours, to avoid larger males in established colonies/ areas.
The problem with contracts this time of year, is that I'm trying to clear out the local population which creates a void. The travelers think that's pretty neat, and all they have to do is repair the dam and set up shop! I have completion dates on these type contracts, and guarantee my work, so I have to keep them out until those dates. The traps/snares at the entry points do a pretty good job taking care of the dispersing beaver, but some areas have so many beaver in the surrounding areas, and rivers are like interstates, so bidding some contracts is a gamble. I took the beaver out of these ponds in four days (two checks) but have already caught two beaver trying to enter these two ponds on ether end of the contract. Tomorrow I move into some ponds in the interior of the contract, while maintaining traps at the entry points, to help keep the outside ponds clear and water flowing. Meanwhile, there will probably be a couple hundred beaver migrating up and down the river this flowage drains into, in the next couple weeks.