A Look at the Trapping Industry
Through its Classes

Furs, inside and out
Wildlife biologists and wardens tan a few hides in a short course on trapping
by Kathryn A. Kahler

Day One: Deep background
Day Two: Know the rules and regs
Day Three: Setting and skinning
Day Four: The test

Day One: Deep background

Lectures opened with a presentation by Virgil Schroeder, President of the Wisconsin Trappers Association (WTA). The nonprofit organization of 3,800 members places a strong emphasis on education and ethics to help improve the public perception of trapping. The association partners with the Department of Natural Resources by conducting and funding research on dryland cable restraints and mercury concentrations in otter. Members proactively work on solutions to emotion-charged problems like the incidental trapping of pets, recognizing that such problems left unchecked could lead to further restrictions of their sport.

“Very seldom does somebody who has gone through trapper education classes, who learns and uses modern techniques, cause a problem,” Schroeder said. “It’s more often the older trapper who’s been trapping 20 years, never had to take a trapper education course and is set in his ways.”

Trapper education has been required in Wisconsin since 1992. Jolene Kuehn, DNR’s former trapper education coordinator, said Wisconsin’s program is a cooperative effort between the agency and WTA, many of whose members are volunteer instructors. The program is funded by $2 from each trapping license sold. Novice trappers can choose from instructor-led classes, weekend workshops or a correspondence course, and must pass a test before purchasing a license.

Wisconsin’s program evolved from a strictly economy-driven management philosophy to one that encompasses furbearer ecology, habitat management and cultural issues like animal welfare. A Technical Furbearer Advisory Committee of 25-30 experts statewide recommends changes to policies, procedures and regulations. The group, including DNR wildlife biologists, endangered resource specialists and wardens, as well as representatives from WTA, Wisconsin Conservation Congress, University of Wisconsin and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, meet annually in late May.

Implementing changes to trapping regulations is a two-year process. “That may seem like a frustratingly long time to some people, but it keeps us and others from making knee-jerk reactions,” Olson said. “For example, the body gripper emergency rule passed in 1998 was driven by trap incident reports of 33 dogs caught in traps, 25 of which died. We quickly sat down with members of the WTA and Conservation Congress and said, ‘We have to do something about this.’ It was an emotional issue with high public visibility. We came up with a complex rule regulating the use of #220 body-grippers on dry land that virtually put a stop to incidental trapping of dogs within two years, without having to ban any traps.”

Brian Dhuey, a DNR wildlife research scientist, described the agency’s efforts in furbearer surveys and population modeling. Surveys include harvest estimates from registration records and parts collection, population estimates from track counts or helicopter surveys, hunter and trapper questionnaires and market value of furs. Population modeling allows managers to consider “what if” scenarios: By entering factors like population size, sex and age comparisons, harvest mortality and regulation compliance into computerized modeling programs and comparing that data with winter tracking surveys and other independent population estimates, DNR wildlife managers can make calculations to set harvest regulations and keep populations stable over time.

Wisconsin is one of 31 states helping to develop and use Best Management Practices (BMPs) for trapping. Wisconsin trappers field-test and evaluate traps based on their humaneness, efficiency, selectivity, practicality and safety to trappers and the public. BMPs evolved to continually improve humane treatment in taking animals and to address anti-trapping sentiments of the 1960s and 70s. This effort was invaluable in international negotiations among Canada, Europe, Russia and the United States about the humaneness of foothold traps. Since 1996, federal and state wildlife agencies have invested $4.6 million on trap testing, public education and BMPs.

Foothold traps capture live animals for many purposes, such as to reduce human/wildlife conflicts, move animals that become a nuisance to people, protect rare or endangered plant and animal species, conduct wildlife research or relocate species in efforts to establish populations in other states. “We need to sustain trapping as a wildlife management tool and BMPs help us by enhancing public awareness and understanding of modern trapping,” Olson said. “A survey conducted by the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies in 2001 showed 73 percent of Wisconsin residents support regulated trapping.”

Later in the day students learned furbearer and trap identification. Generally described as an animal whose fur has a dense undercoat of soft hair with longer “guard hair” on top during the winter, the term “furbearer” in Wisconsin is by law specifically restricted to muskrat, mink, weasel, beaver, fisher, otter, skunk, raccoon, fox, coyote, bobcat and opossum.

A volunteer WTA instructor demonstrates how to set a dry land trap.

Wisconsin trappers use a variety of traps, based on three general categories. Foothold and box traps hold animals live until they can be released or quickly, humanely killed. Foothold traps come in many sizes and designs, including the single and double long spring, coilspring, guarded foothold, and the padded foothold trap. Each type has an advantage in different situations. Foothold traps can be used both on dry land and as drowning sets for beaver or muskrat. Box or cage traps are used most extensively for research or to trap target animals where the potential of accidentally trapping domestic animals is high.

Body-gripping traps, which usually kill the trapped animal quickly through a combination of striking and clamping forces, also come in several sizes and are most often used in water sets. They are useful on land but care must be taken to avoid trapping nontarget species. Wisconsin regulations prohibit the use of body-gripping traps larger than 7 x 7 inches on dry land. Snares (used underwater) and dryland cable restraints are simplified body-gripping devices that can either kill (snares), or hold animals alive (cable restraints).

Day Two: Know the rules and regs

Wardens Nathan Kroeplin and John Welke opened the second day of classroom lectures with an overview of Wisconsin trapping regulations. Students learned where and when trappers can pursue their sport, what kinds of traps they can use in each situation, how they can and can’t place them, license and permit information, requirements for checking traps, possession restrictions, what to do if they accidentally trap a nontarget animal, which species are protected at all times, and other information about pine marten restoration, trapper education and BMPs.

Jonathan Gilbert, a wildlife researcher with the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, told how he uses traps to catch and release animals for his research. Gilbert detailed the intricacies of setting traps to selectively capture only the animal he is studying. “A foothold trap, for example, can be selective by adjusting the pan so a 10-pound fisher won’t set it off, but a 20-pound bobcat will,” Gilbert said. “Just like the commercial trapper, the more we know about how an animal behaves and acts, the more effective and selective we can be. We know that fishers and martens are curious by nature so we don’t have to worry about disguising our scent. Bobcats, on the other hand, are more wary so we use gloves when setting traps for them.”

Researchers also use hair traps, designed to lure animals like the endangered pine marten; hair samples attach as the animal passes through, confirming a specific species’ presence in an area. Gilbert also makes extensive use of box traps – called Tomahawk traps after their manufacturer located in Tomahawk, Wis. – in mark/recapture and radio-collar studies, and motion-triggered video cameras. Besides “catching” animals on tape, this technology gives researchers valuable visual evidence and insight into animal behavior.

Tuesday concluded with a field trip to the North American Fur Auction, an auction house that brokers the sale of over two million ranch mink and one million pieces of wild fur each year (see sidebar).

Day Three: Setting and skinning

The day many had eagerly anticipated arrived when Dennis Brady and other volunteer WTA instructors handed out foothold traps to pairs of students, who first practiced setting them in the classroom. Instructors then set off for the wilds around the Fur Shed, traps in hand and students in tow, to demonstrate the fine art of setting a dry land set. Other traps shown included the body-gripper, Egg, Duffer, Lil’ Griz, cage, snare and cable restraint.

The animals used in Fur School are collected throughout the trapping season and kept frozen until the start of school. Some are road kills, but most are incidental catches handed over to conservation wardens and donated to Fur School.

Most animals, with the exception of beaver, are skinned by slitting the skin from one hind foot to the other and peeling the skin down over the animal’s head as we would remove a pullover sweater. The resulting tube-shaped pelt is called a “cased” fur. Some cased furs are left skin-side out, most commonly muskrat, mink, weasel, raccoon, otter and skunk. Pelts prepared with the fur side out include gray and red fox, coyote, fisher and bobcat. Beavers are skinned “open” by making an incision down the underside from tail to nose.

After the animals were skinned, they had to be fleshed, the process of scraping away the meat and fat. Skins were pulled taut fur side in over a pointed board – like a narrow ironing board – called a fleshing beam. Starting at the head and using a two-handled curved scraper, the instructors showed us how to use just the right stroke to remove the flesh without applying too much pressure to weaken or puncture the fur, and how to reposition the skin from side to side, gradually moving toward the tail until the skin was clean. Instructors stressed the importance of removing all fat to prevent fur spoilage.

Fleshing was followed by stretching on special wooden boards. Skins were stretched fur side in, centered so that forelegs and belly were on one side and eyes, ears and back on the other, then stapled in place. Beavers were stretched by nailing to a round board or sewn into a hoop frame. Skins were then allowed to dry in a place away from direct heat or sunlight. Pelts that would be finished fur side out were only partially dried on the boards, then after six to eight hours were turned fur side out to finish drying. Depending on the drying conditions, skins take two to five days to dry thoroughly.

Day Four: The test

On the final day of Fur School students practiced placing some of the trickier sets like body-gripper, snare and cable restraint traps in the woods and wetlands near the fur shed. They also picked up more tips on handling and preparing different types of pelts including a demonstration of skinning and stretching beaver.

Kathryn A. Kahler is a Wildlife Ecology graduate, trapper in training and circulation/promotions manager for Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine in Madison. Fur marketing, big-time Buy a fur anywhere in North America, or even Russia or China, and chances are it was handled by the North American Fur Auction in Stoughton, Wisconsin.

The 85,000 square-foot facility is the only fur auction house in the United States. It collects ranch and wild fur nationwide, then grades, consolidates and prepares skins for auction at its headquarters in Toronto, Canada.

Grading raccoons at the North American Fur Auction in Stoughton, Wisconsin. A network of about 20 agents in a five-state region from Pennsylvania to South Dakota collects furs directly from trappers, or from collection points where trappers can drop their furs. NAFA is the commissioned agent for both sellers and buyers, who include fur dealers and garment manufacturers.

Fur experts at the Stoughton plant put up goods based on uniform size, grade and color; bar code each skin and organize them into lots; prepare auction catalogs and pull samples for buyer inspections. Auctions are held four times a year.

The company currently handles over two million ranch-raised mink and one million pieces of wild fur annually. Most of the wild fur they handle comes from two species – raccoon and muskrat.

Russia and China represent the fastest growing wild fur market and are helping sustain some of the highest market prices in years.

One of the most intriguing aspects of preparing wild fur for auction is the grading process. Each species has its own grading criteria based on the weight of underfur, the height of guard hairs, and where the animals were trapped. A raccoon taken in Missouri or Georgia, for example, will generally be of lesser quality than one from Minnesota because animals from colder regions have heavier fur than those from warmer regions.

Trappers who use NAFA to sell their furs have access to a world market and potentially higher prices for their furs. When it’s time for their furs to go to auction, they can monitor the sale on NAFA’s website, at www.nafa.ca.

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