A carnivorous predator to the core - an Ozark Mountain bobcat showing his general demeanor.
If you love any kind of hunting in the Ozarks you should love trappers. Predator control has been proven a vital part of a three pronged approach to a quality wildlife management plan. Combined with quality habitat improvement and proven harvest practices, predator trapping is a vital and enjoyable way to improve your deer, turkey, upland bird, and small game populations while gaining a much greater understanding and appreciation of the inner workings of Mother Nature. I’ve tried to explain this exciting piece of information to my wife over the years but she just couldn’t get past the smell of the inside of my Jeep during trapping season. Also, according to her, trapping gets in the way of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. And it gets me up too early in the morning and it keeps me in the fur shed too late at night for 3 long months. Hmmm. Now I’ve always been told that marriage is compromise so this year I changed from trapping in the Jeep to a pickup – now LaDonna can go along with me when I run traps. I guess my sentimental side gets the better of me during Christmas, ain’t she a lucky woman!
The One-Eyed Hillbilly with a double on bobcats. Removing predators just prior to fawning is a very important aspect of Quality Deer Management.
In a recently released 10 year study conducted by faculty and students at Mississippi State University it was proven that deer are a very important part of the diet for coyotes. Bobcats were also shown to be a predator of deer – mainly older fawns. The two main peak times that deer hair shows up in coyote and bobcat scat is during fawning season and during hunting season. The study showed that for best results predator removal had to occur just prior to peak fawning. That bit of information plays well for trappers and trapping season in the late winter just prior to spring fawning times. Per the study, for best results trapping needs to be undertaken when predation is identified as the limiting factor of the wildlife population and the wildlife population is below the carrying capacity of the land. The study showed that removal of coyotes and bobcats had a significant impact on fawn survival. And, the study didn’t even take into consideration the impact on turkeys, quail, rabbits, squirrels, or any other game animals. If that isn’t reason enough to trap or ask a trapper to do it for you then I don’t know what is!
A back foot catch but pride will get you an empty fur shed! The One-Eyed Hillbilly with the first coyote of 2010.
The furbearers were on the move this past week as I put steel in the ground for the first time this year just prior to the arctic front moving in over the weekend. With 19 sets across 2 farms we managed 3 bobcats, 3 raccoons, 2 opossums, and 1 coyote. After the cold front hit everything in nature holed up and we hardly cut a track for 2 days. I did, however, manage to get LaDonna to ride with me in the truck to run traps one morning. How long you reckon it will be before I can talk her into skinning and scraping in the fur shed? We also managed a double on bobcats. After twice getting a scent post set dug by a grey fox I set a blind set about 3 feet further up the trail in an attempt to catch the grey as he approached the first trap. To my surprise when we showed up the next morning we had 2 bobcats within a few feet of one another! Unfortunately the grey fox is still tormenting us and thumbing his nose at us. His time is coming…
As I set here writing and watching one of my favorite westerns of all time, ‘Lonesome Dove’, I can’t help but chuckle about the scene when the character Deputy Roscoe Brown asks the old Arkansas mountain man if he’s going to have opossum for his supper while the old man is sitting there skinning a ‘grinner’(opossum). The old man wasn’t in the sharing mood apparently as he replied, “You’re not, unless you go get your own!” This morning as I ran my traps and retrieved a coyote and a plump opossum, my uncle Tim asked if he could have my opossum. He said he thought he might cook it for dinner. Since it was Christmas time I figured it was the least I could do - you know…Christmas time and all – Santa Claus is watching. I was in the sharing mood anyway so I gave it to him. You know you’re a hillbilly when your uncle asks for and you give him an opossum for his dinner! Only in the Ozarks! So says the One-Eyed Hillbilly.
Greg Stephens is a 35-year veteran & life-time student of the great outdoors. His column appears weekly in print & online publications. You can email him at gregstephens@one-eyedhillbilly.com. For more columns go to www.one-eyedhillbilly.blogspot.com.
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