The RSM Trapping Club is back in action....

The Phoenix has risen... :)

Yesterday we finally broke the drought and assembled the troops for a short but productive outing.

Our first order of business was to get a bait pile out down near the old air strip, as there were numerous fox sightings down there as of late and, best of all, reports of a Cross fox using the area. We grabbed our new gear, which included a dozen snares, some call lure, and the necessary tools/wire from the boxes, and away we went.

Just between the "new" airstrip and the "old" airstrip, I found exactly what I was looking for. A rectangular stand of willows with a very convincing set of criss-crossing trails heading to and from one outside edge. Bingo.

We all went in on the same trail and went to work...














After the first bait station was set, we went for a short drive upriver to Fish Camp and set another...









Great care was taken to not disturb the area and leave no sign in the snow - even tree-crawling was employed...:)


When I re-explained about outstanding objects I mentioned that "...they are, to a fox, something they just can't resist checking out - kind of like when your friend plays "made you look!" they'll say something they think you can't resist to try and fool you."

I pointed out a nearby stump that had various trails meeting at it and illustrated its status as an outstanding object/pee post, and the girls responded with this message in the snow, and I just had to take a picture: (stump and tracks are upper-center...)


In the end, we finished up a good set at the second site, and now we just have to wait and see what happens....

The Catches Continue!

With the addition of some snares set across the river, we have now branched out a bit on species and added to the 'fur shed'!

The first new animal collected was an otter, caught in a snare set on a beaver feed pile. It was a great opportunistic catch, made possible by the assistance of a trapping club student and parent, and the snares we built early on. The kids seemed excited about the catch, and we had a fun day in science class dissecting and analyzing the beast. We found some partially digested blackfish in the stomach contents, which was a great success - seeing as none of our other stomach content analyses were productive thus far.









We had a good view of the four chambered heart as well - and we were able to observe the frozen, coagulated blood left in the chambers:


Also, we ended up catching another Red in the snare bait pile which had been robbed of its bait. Just goes to show the benefit of using naturally occurring trails, even when incorporating them into a bait pile. That particular bait had been stolen roughly a week prior to this catch. This is one of the students in the trapping club, with Bridger and Ada investigating the frozen bounty:

Trapping Club Meeting #2...

First I would like to start off with events from the school day, before we get to the evening. We skinned the fox in the last post...


...and then we went through a comprehensive dissection, including stomach content analysis. Also discussed were many skeletal and anatomical features common to predators. The biggest hits seemed to be the lenses of the eyes and exploring just how long the intestines really are in relation to the fox itself:


Now, on to the evening...

Well, this week's RSM Trapping Club meeting was a bigger success than last week's - I was hoping for a better turnout now that the flurry of activities is temporarily over, and it definitely was. All told, we had eleven kids show up - after everyone ran home for gloves and hats and snow pants and snow boots and what not (after all, it WAS -23 outside...)

We started by everyone making a few S-bend wires for hanging snares, and before long with all of us working together we had about 2 dozen. I grabbed a pair of rotted, foul duck carcasses from this fall along with two footholds and some snares and away we went. Though most of us walked, many only went far enough to get their snowmachines and then joined the rest of us at the dump, which was our first stop.




We all made it safely in the end:


Oh, and once we got to the dump there was a "Hairy Man" sighting: :)


First up we chose a spot in a low pocket of willows off the dump road where lots of sign already was. Careful to all use the same trail on the way in, we stomped down a bait station circle and got two snares hung in already-used-trails.








We applied the stank-nasty duck carcass-minus-breasts for scent and visual appeal - and OH BOY did it have some scent!!! As Basil found out... :) We also applied some of Asa Lenon's lure to a post-stick to sweeten the pot a bit.




After that, the fence building began.




There were a few more freshly broken tops showing than I would normally use, but in the end, it looked pretty darn good. As I have said before and I will say many times again - the 'dumb' ones look the same on the stretchers as the 'smart' ones.


A good time seemed to be had by all, though some were more bystander than participant this go-round...


While we were working on the first bait-station, two of the students set off around the dump on their own, and placed two other snares in trails. They also came back with a moose backbone! (on back of the snowmachine...)


After about half the students headed for home due to the cold, (did I mention it was -23 outside?...) we took off for the far reaches of the lake and made a set with the two footholds and the newly-acquired backbone. The set was created in a natural cubby and was a modified version of my "step-up" set I experimented with in Pilot Station. This isn't the best picture, but it was getting dark and the camera didn't adjust well.... :)


We'll see how it goes...

The Kids have a snaring success!!!

Travel is still a little sketchy depending which direction you may try to go; in fact, parts of the river are still open. This blurry shot was taken from the classroom the other morning, as the sun was creating steam over the open water:


Because of that, we haven't gotten far to make more sets. Just yesterday was our first trip skiing across the river. Still haven't gotten the machine from Pilot yet either, of course. Maybe the trails will be all set soon.

Anyway, the snare set from the last post, that we set on Friday, was the ticket. Turns out one of the Trapping Club members noticed that a snare was set off over the weekend - a miss - and reset it - and it was a good thing he did, as that snare happened to be the one that connected.

The first critter of the school year is on the stretching boards! It took us most of the day because the little varmint was frozen through the afternoon, but we got him processed and stretched...
Here he is before the first cut...

The Kickoff of the Russian Mission Trapping Club!!!...

This Wednesday we kicked off the inaugural meeting of the Russian Mission Trapping Club!!! YeeeHawww!

We had just three in attendance, though many told me beforehand that they wouldn't be able to make it. We spent the time logging on to Trapperman and setting up accounts, and then we moved on to snare building 101!


And then, today (Friday) was the day - even though there were multiple activities that kids were out on, and our afternoon was slightly shortened by other constraints, I was able to get out in the afternoon with three of the students and get things underway. Interestingly, these three were a DIFFERENT three than Wednesday's group.... :P

As stated, we just had the afternoon to find and set one location - but what an afternoon of Science Class!! Can it get any better!?!!?!

We selected a little willow choked-flat on the edge of the lake behind the village for a bait pile snare set-up. LOTS of fox sign in the area and its proximity to the dump, I feel, almost ensures success.


This set-up was small, with us only setting three snares, but they fenced things up nicely and chose our spot well, and I think they are going to connect. We'll see...

(Pictures to follow....)