An ermine explosion!

November 29 - December 1, 2013: When you spend enough time in an area watching the animals that reside there, you eventually start to notice things. Comparing to last year, this year we have noticed that our grouse population is once again healthy; we are seeing more deer sign than normal; and our moose population is in good shape. Our squirrels seem to be fewer but still plenty, and our mouse and vole population appears to be at a high. This bodes well for several other species. We've also noticed that there is more coyote sign than last year, even though it is still a small amount. However, our wolves haven't been making their regular runs through the area for some reason. This concerns me, as they haven't found our bait station yet and now that we can use snares (December 1st), I have no idea where to put them without their trails being established.

We've also noticed that our lynx population is extremely high, yet our snowshoe hare numbers are dwindling. In fact, the hare sign this year compared to last isn't even close. We are on the downside of the cycle so hare numbers are in decline, but the lynx may not have recognized this yet. We are seeing more lynx and their sign because they have to travel further in search of food. Soon their numbers will begin to fall as well. Twice in the span of four hours, Dakota and I saw two lynx in different locations. One adult lynx and one younger one, perhaps born this spring. The older cat allowed me enough time to get a few photos.

This lynx crossed Cabin Trail Road just ahead of us.

Zoomed all the way in.

But the biggest thing we've noticed on the trapline this year is the incredible amount of ermine that are running around. We attribute this to the amount of mice and vole sign we are seeing, which is everywhere. Conditions must have been perfect for this little member of the weasel family and birth rates must have been high. I have never seen so many sabotaged traps, as nearly every trap we came across on the Pipeline Trail and all the other trails that make up the north and center part of the trapline, either held an ermine or was empty and sprung. We caught five ermine on the Friday check. Unfortunately, with so many traps out of commission, we never caught a marten, which is the reason for these traps. The 120 Conibear is also too powerful for the ermine, often damaging the pelt beyond salvage. Of the 10 ermine we'd caught before this trip, three had to be discarded.

Caught trying to pull the bait out of the box.

Another bait thief trying to get the bait out of the box.

Here Dakota is removing another ermine, this one on Unnamed Trail.

We caught a marten in this set two weeks ago.

This ermine is tiny and probably too damaged to salvage. Caught in a mink box along a small creek.

On Saturday, our plan was to hit the south end of the trapline and get back with enough time left in the day to build a couple of 220 Conibear cubbies along the creek for fisher. We also wanted to get the gulo pen set on Gulo Trail.

Our journey began much the same way as the day before had. We were dealing with snapped traps and stolen bait continuously but this time we weren't catching anything. I think we caught only one ermine by the time we reached the Extension Route and then, once again, our luck changed. Dakota had said just before we got there that the Extension Route would produce a marten, and it did. In fact, we caught two.

Our first marten of the day.

Marten number two and our fifth from the Extension Route.

Our rig.

Another ermine from Old Forest Trail.

We arrived back at the center of the trapline in time to build our cubbies. The first one we built along the creek where we'd caught the fisher last year in the mink box. I wanted a more powerful trap down there this year. This cubby is a simple one, made of sticks with only one entrance guarded by a 220 Conibear right at ground level. A piece of duck is hung down behind the trap on a piece of hay wire and some fisher lure is added. This is very similar to a lynx cubby, just on a smaller scale.

The small fisher cubby along the creek.

Next was Center Trail where we'd built a fisher cubby the previous season. A fisher had come to a lynx snare pen we originally had in this spot, so we quickly converted it. Today, we would rebuild it.

From there we made our way to Gulo Trail and the "great gulo pen" that Dad and I had built two springs ago. I hadn't seen the gulo pen since last February and was happy to see it was still in good shape. The beauty of the gulo pen is that it is a well-built, permanent structure, meaning the only work that needs to be done when you get there is to add the bait and lure, and then set the trap.

Dakota at the gulo pen.

On our way out on Sunday, we stopped at a few accessible traps and caught two more ermine. We had now caught nine for the trip. With about 55 traps set for marten, we were catching one ermine for every six traps we checked. Last year our total ermine catch was 15. This year, just one month into the season, we've already caught 20.


Until next time!