Terminal dives in mink, muskrat and beaver.

Monitoring of EEG, EKG and overt behavior of mink, muskrat, and beaver caught in leg hold traps in an aquatic tank, showed marked differences by species. Death by CO2 induced narcosis (submersion asphyxia) was evident in beaver, about 50 percent of muskrat but "wet" drowning occurred in mink. Bradycardia was evident in all three species but was most pronounced in the beaver. Times to cessation of struggle, brain activity and heart activity indicated that the terminal dives of mink and muskrat, but not beaver, fell within the tentative criteria of humaneness for trapping devices established by the Federal Provincial Committee for Humane Trapping of Canada.