Trapping Brings Many Surprises
October 28, 2009
My friend Albert is a trapper. He’s also a pretty decent photographer. From his trapping experiences, he often has interesting stories to tell and at times we can all share in the experience with some pictures.
In the first two pictures we see a gray fox. Albert was trapping deep in the forest and as he approached his trap, at first he thought he had caught a fisher but soon realized it was this gray fox. When he went to put the loop from the release pole over the fox’s head, he didn’t struggle. Albert released the fox, completely unharmed but the fox didn’t run away. Al left the area and returned a short time later with his resetting equipment and the fox had remained at the site until Al approached him. Al says he even patted the fella on the head.
What a gorgeous animal.
Photo by Albert Ladd
Photo by Albert Ladd
The next photograph is what remains after a bear had sprung one of his traps. If you’ll notice in the picture you’ll see several bear tracks around the sprung trap. Albert says he was quite relieved he didn’t have to spring a bear free.
Photo by Albert Ladd
I find the next photograph quite remarkable. A bobcat has been caught in Al’s trap. This guy is large by bobcat standards and is simply a beautiful animal. When Albert approached his trap, the bobcat was resting quietly and looked up just in time to have his picture taken. The cat was release without incident and without a scratch.
Photo by Albert Ladd
And last but certainly not least, we all are trappers in one form or another and nearly every American at one time or other has had to set out a trap for various reasons. In the photograph below, Albert set out a single trap and in an usual fashion trapped two animals within the same trap.
Photo by Albert Ladd
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A heads up for trappers. The movement afoot from the liberals to stop all trapping on public lands is gaining momentum every day and needs to be stopped, before it stops trapping entirely. Contact your congressmen.
Tom,
Just curious as to why Albert is releasing a Bobcat? That skin is worth a few dollars.
Jim – I’m not 100% certain but I believe at the time bobcat is out of season.
That would be a good reason.
Jim, as Tom said it was out of season. Also our eastern cats don’t have the nice big spots that western cats have. In a good year I’d be surprised if i got $100 for the cat. Were some western cats would be bringing averaging $600.
As for the gray we don’t see many of them in my part of the state. Market conditions and all i had no problem letting him go.–the mice however will be used for coyote bait.
Mr. Ladd, thanks for the great pics.
It would be interesting to find out, how on earth you could release that bobcat without EITHER of you getting a scratch…Something about a “release pole”? How does that work?
Thanks Albert.
The release pole has a plastic coated ajustable cable loop. Place it “usually” over the head and around the neck. While he’s busy fighting that you release the trap with your feet. If that don’t work you tuck the end of the 5ft pole against your stomach and use your hands to open the levers on the trap.
The fox didn’t fight at all. The bobcat and a fisher cat are a different story. Did release a small bear “60-80 lbs”several years ago. That turned out to be easy. But the bear was a young one, and my son was with me. We didn’t even use the pole. He was caught by a hind foot. He was pulling away from us, so I stepped on one lever and my son on the other and away he went.