Over the years, I've snap-trapped hundreds of thousands of trap-nights. In terms of seeing what's out there as far as food for the predators (AKA furbearers, raptors), there is no better way to find out what's available. Some interesting catches over the years. These are a minor sampling of some of the catches that were notable for one reason or another.

I don't know how many thousands of small mammals I've captured, but this is the only true albino. It was captured on Minto Flats in Interior Alaska. A northern red-backed vole.


Shrews are always interesting. Most are caught in pitffall traps rather than snap-traps. This is a Cinereus Shrew.



Again, hundreds of thousands of trap-nights have resulted in the capture of only 4 least weasels that I can remember. Exceedingly rare for me to capture. Usually, adult voles are heavier than the least weasels.

Always look forward to photo Friday. Very cool catches. Thank you

I never saw a least weasel. I don’t even know if we have then in Idaho.

Grandpa - Through the years, I've only seen a handful of least weasels. There may be a few in extreme northern Idaho panhandle, but far as I know, they've never been documented in the state.

Kevin C. - Glad you enjoy the photos sir. Thank you for commenting; nice to know the images are appreciated!

Shrews are very cool. And a big pain on the marten line! Here is a pit trap I used under a marten box set above on the tree. The shrews eat all the bait and tear up the marten if given a chance. The bait here was a grouse head and a dried beaver oil sac looks like. I don't hate shrews but I do fight them from time to time!

For a couple years the redback vole population was really building. Then one day about 7, maybe as many as 9, least weasels swept through the place. They were everywhere popping up and down in every vole hole around. It was hard to get a good count on the weasels because they were in and out so much but there was a good many. The next day I saw one vole and I think 2 more least weasels. After that it was done and the weasels moved on. I think it mush have been a family group.

More informative and nice shots, Jack.

Fascinating, how the small things can tell the state of the big things.

I can only imagine your expression upon seeing that snowy white vole.

Thank you for sharing.

Sharon -

Come on, girl! You must have some artwork depicting a red-backed vole, a weasel, or something related? Your red fox doing the vole hop?

Yes. I'm convinced that closely watching the ups and downs in the small mammal populations can tell us lots about the furbearers (especially marten). I have no doubt that we can even predict yellow jacket and bald-faced hornet highs and lows based on the small mammal abundance. Very fascinating.

Jack

Love to contribute, your subjects are inspiring !

Here's a couple of fox , and some digging things, an Eastern mole, and a gopher. I think it so neat that the fur on these diggers can lay backwards and forwards , not just one direction. You know the proper term for that syndrome ...

Your insight on the flying meanies is fascinating to me. I'd love to learn what you have observed. How those things (of which I am seriously enough allergic to the stings) , can be predicted in connection with small mammals... I had no idea !

Your hand eye coordination is amazing, Sharon. I can't begin to do that sort of thing. You would have made a top notch bush pilot!!

Years ago along an interior river, in June, I found a freeze dried marten still hanging from a pole set. The snow had been deep enough by end of winter that the shrews had got to it. They began at the anus and ate most all the body inside the skin. Just the arms and legs still had dried flesh inside. It became a decoration in my house for a few years. Don't know why the trapper hadn't found it before the end of the season!

Many thanks, MT, for that nice thought. I was flying and getting some decent training time in, with my father. I should have kept it up and attained all the legalities , despite the cost. I would have promptly moved from the east to the western mountains and continued to fly . I know I would have chosen the Alaskan Range , and also Montana . Not a day transpires that I don't dearly miss having wings.

Here goes, Sharon. People don't generally read long posts, so I'll try to keep it to a minimum. Vole abundance as it relates to yellow jacket numbers - my $ 0.02...

While in Alaska, over the course of 27 years, I was snap-trapping small mammals for data on diets of marten and boreal owls. Thousands of captures over this time period. Small mammal annual abundance not cyclic ("cyclic" infers that it was predictable). Red-backed vole numbers varied from the highs to the lows, almost 40X difference. Finally, it appeared that lows in red-backed voles and all the other voles was dependent on winter weather. If winter chinooks came through (unseasonable, above-freezing warm winds in late January/February), the voles abundance dropped precipitously during the winter and was evident through the next spring/summer. This seemed to affect marten production and survival. I also noted that those real low vole years was when the interior of Alaska had voracious and belligerent yellow-jackets, virtually everywhere. My thoughts were the voles (because they were dead) were no longer foraging underneath the snowpack. Thus, they were not eating the overwintering gravid female yellow-jackets that live in the leaf duff under the snow. All those thousands (millions?) of wintering female yellow-jackets survived to start fresh colonies. By early summer the yellow nasties were insane.

Jack

Well, sir Jack, I am not most people, and when it comes to yourself, the longer and more detailed your insights shared, the more I appreciate you and your life's work.

As in any art form, of which you enjoy so many talents , the more detail you see, the greater is life enjoyed in following the trails. Your resulting , sometimes half mumbled summaries, in your unique humor, put the spice to smiles and life for me.......ex...." a wuff, is a wuff, is a wuff...."

Your observances makes perfect sense . I've killed my share of those angry , big butt females I find in my woodpile , or under leaves.

Well then. Here's to many numbers of happy voles, even white ones, to happily crunch those insane yellow nasties , even without pouring semi sweet dark chocolate on them first.

Thank you, Jack.

Even being a novice as to technical terms, I still love and get the gist of detailed observations . Sort of like the stock market. I am scuba diving out of my air element big time in understanding the height, breadth and depth of those mathematics, but I understand totally what a bouncing dead cat means , nonetheless.

I hope you are enduring in safety , the moose fire . I have one that is a ridge away from having me evacuate . My smoke jumpers are camped right with me. They are a fantastic crew . I serve them cool drinks in the afternoon. I have a big Chinook and two other lovable workhorses in choppers flying right over me daily. I stand outside and wave at the drivers. I love the cadence of those thin bodied work horses. Just like the cadence of big guns. They see me and smile, toting those big buckets of water. Some good sized planes too. They've got this....

Man, I love flight....be safe, sir Jack.

My observations on yellow jacket from Manitoba is that a a warm dry spring the colonies build up in big numbers by Aug
early snow cover with no winter melting of snow gets numerous Queens to start, but cold wet weather puts them back ( we have very few this summer with wet/cold May)

I would say shrews were more of a predator of the overwintering wasp

One January a week of snow melt and -20c front put a tight seal over the snow, marten moved like crazy with almost every trap filled. Several went into museum specimens and had anywhere from 20 to 56 shrews in their stomachs, most were S cinereus.
Jack pine/tag alder/ black spruce inter-phase area. beach ridges

Interesting in those chip containers are what I store my lure for transportation

Careful now, Jack! Once again you have stated, or implied, that prey numbers effect marten numbers. Maybe not so much us trappers!! haha! Sorry for the change of subject.

I caught a least weasel once. Real small but the interesting part was the coloration. Half was white, half brown. The dividing line was around the stomach area with front half one color and back half the other.