I received this email and thought I'd throw it out to y'all to see if anyone knows of such a graph.

Hello,

I need some help finding a graph that shows coon fur prices from about 2000 to present.

I’m a past President of the Wisc. Wildlife Federation, and was a trapper ED instructor.

On December 10th we (WiWF) had a WDNR guest speaker at our B.O.D. meeting talking about the downward trend
In migratory bird nesting success. He had a graph showing a steep decline in it. I’d like to compare his graph with
a graph of the coon fur prices to show they match in the downward trend. Showing what I believe should show
a lack of predator control results reduced nesting success.

So, can you help me? Or direct me to a source to get it? WDNR said they did not have that info.

Thank you,

Corky Meyer

would groenwold fur have that information?

Let Mr. Meyer know that there is a very weak if any correlation between those two. Its more likely that traditional nesting habitat have been destroyed, disrupted and wetland decrease and hunter over harvest have a far higher impact and correlation to migratory bird numbers. In Louisiana this is the primary reason for the decline along with overharvest, compounded by beaver killing year round and the nutria destroying critical habitat.

Raccoon fur sales dont have 1/3 of the USA since raccoons from the South are not really valuable, and there are more factors that play into why people do or dont trap raccoons. Gas prices, available land to trap(severe decrease as well), trappers available to trap, major US policy decisions, etc. I dont know him and he sounds well intentioned but this is what is known as "leading preference conclusions". That just means that you have already pre determined and assigned a primary factor that is responsible for undesirable result. Just my opinion.

There is a Wisconsin Fur Buyers report- if I had all the data for the time period mentioned I could make the graph. The data is probably a baseline stake in the ground because the go to market strategies from Wisconsin trappers differs from trapper-to-trapper but here's an example of that report from 2012-2013 contrasting to same report 2019-2020. Again, it might not be all encompassing but may represent the best Apples-to-Apples comparison.

Factor in that Wisconsin coons are some of the best in the country and are heavily targeted when prices are high.

Mn collects furbearer harvest information at the end of the season, does WI have anything like that by chamce?

You'd make a great anti-trapping spokesperson.

wissmiss - might be the best resource on where or if the best data set exists

Thought there was a trapper on here who actually participated in those trapping areas and proved otherwise as far as nest success.
I didn’t realize LA had nesting waterfowl, thought all that took place up North.
And I can’t speak for migratory birds, but there are hundreds of places down here that would disagree with you about coon removal and ground nesting birds. Numbers here don’t lie or get influenced, it is what it is.

Matt LA why don't you restrict your answers to something you may know something about firsthand?

This might be closer on same data historical- source attached at bottom: Includes trapped/hunted and pelt price correlation


https://p.widencdn.net/p60ogc/furharv

Delta water fowl has done studies if memory serves me right. Here is a link that may lead in the right direction. Delta Water Fowl

MattLA has seen one to
Many disney and steve irwin shows.

Those fairy tales dont work on people who actually go outdoors and study the natural world

I guess you need to be a genius to know that removing predatory animals from nest sites will increase the success rate of nesting birds

I guess coons skunks possums black snakes coyotes mink and bobcats are not very adept at finding ground nesters though

105K coon difference is a big difference that is just the ones sold

I can see where numbers from other places wouldn't play out the same trends because there wouldn't have been a 97% change in nest predators caught in a short time frame.

My thought was Delta too...

This info has to be true. I read it on the internet.

Here's a link to Delta's predator management page. It's not a graph, but is pertinent.

https://deltawaterfowl.org/predator-management/

Check with the Pennsylvania Game Commission, they used to keep track of fur values. At one time they were right up on top of that info and were very pro trapping regarding the value of managing species. I don't know if they are still interested in that, seems like a lot of agencies are becoming somewhat "woke" as is the term used nowadays.

I think Delta proved that when they removed the predators there was a 99% success rate in test areas in the duck factories of the US and Canada. DU wants to add more habitat, Delta wants to control the nest raiders to fix the habitat we have.


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