Hi!

For the last few weeks i have been trapping muskrats in a piece of national park. Some pretty big huts there, and also a lot of burrows more higher up the park. I have been using regular conibear 110's for most of my trapping so far (and some ground traps) which works out pretty fine so far... Suddenly, last week i lost three conibears, which were attached by the chain and two sticks to keep the trap in place. Today i lost another conibear, but the conibear besided the one missing contained a big adult muskrat with bitemarks in the tail. I know that sometimes brown rats tend to eat dead muskrats which are caught... but this one was still under water, so a brown rat is of my list of suspects... Since this national park is renowed for its high population of otters, i thought that mayby a otter steals my muskrats with conibear still attatched to it? Does anyone has experiece with this problem? I would like to know what you think!

Thanks!

Best regards,
Waidman.

Raccoons would haul them off too. You really should anchor the traps better IMO.

Definitely YES they do!! One year 14 traps, several I had found up on land with part rats in them. Otters do take rats and they group up on a hut and one will dig into the hut to chase the rats out to the waiting other otters......jk

Thanks! We don't have raccoons here in the Netherlands, Sometimes a polecat or stonemarten will get a rat... but these were under water at least 50cm...

@jk Thank you! I have never had this problem before... but then again, never trapped in such otter invested place... I have indeed found a few big huts with the top scratched open... Will certainly keep my eyes open for the lost trappes!

Large birds of prey may also be responsible for some of your losses.
Tom

Mink

Yes, definitely anchor better

Feral ranch mink.

I have seen both birds of prey and mink take underwater muskrats. Otter may too, but I have not observed it or seen direct evidence of it.

I assume no chupacabras coming out of the tulip fields at night?

Nop, perhaps a hungry hobo... but thats about it...

Lost a few rats out of this one area. The leg would still be In the trap but the rest of the rat was gone. Not a wring off either. Caught a otter In one of those rat sets and the problem ended.