Questions. Anyone ever trap any porkcupine dens? How many can be caught at a den?

I have never found a porky den but I have caught 4 from a game trail in some hard woods years ago in a week.

I poked one with a stick once, about 25 years ago. Only live one I've ever seen.

Only caught 1. And it was non target. Seen 3or 4 running around wild.

I’d think it might be more of an issue transporting the cage after you catch them, lol. I’m not sure I’d use the handle!

One of my friends is up to 16 as of today. Crazy.

Lots of pockies in one place. I've seen hollow bottom of old den tree with several feet of porky dung. Always hated running into them while running hounds when I was younger.

Jim,

Was he trying to catch the porkies?

Sixteen accidental porky catches. LOL. Of course he's trapping them. They denned up on his property where is going to build a house and doing quite a bit of damage to the trees. We have only had one porky come through our property that I know of in 30 years. Ate a couple leaves and left. Wouldn't want to have 16 of them chewing around the house. I get porky calls once in a while and catch them with the the wide beaver traps 12x18x39 or the 12x12x36, both double door traps. Just drift fence them on the ground.

Make that 17.

I guess he's at 18 now. Wonder what the world record is?

Make that 19. Amazing. Living under a bunch of stumps, great home for them.

he's not releasing them too close is he? I didn't think there were so many running around, lol. It would be somewhere between amusing and horrifying if he was catching 3 porkies over and over!

What? No, he is not releasing them too close. I know for a fact that he has not caught any over again, for sure. The second time they are a lot harder to catch, especially when they have bullet hole in the head and they are froze solid. He got #20 a few days ago. There is a pretty good stack of them. Looks like the fisher ran off with a couple.

I've caught 2 in rock crevices 1 or 2 others in blind trail sets I had a big problem with them on my old property alot of young pine they would ring the trees an kill them I've seen it a you g pine completely chewed from bottom to the top just shot everyone we came across then towards then end before I sold it they chewed my floor of my camp from the outside in dang near the whole floor in a weeks time when I replaced it before I sold it I painted the back side with tar for fence post nice thick coat too ran into the guy that bought it a while later said they came back an chewed the whole floor up again couldn't believe it ha

Thats real impressive, especially if there's a fisher in the area knocking their population down. I wonder what they are drawn to in that habitat to make their numbers so high, or what allows the population to be so high?

You might think there were no fisher, but that's not the case either. Recently a fur trapper working that area and the surrounding just caught 93 fisher in 4 weeks this past fall and another trapper caught 27 fisher not all that far the area. Heard that the mass crop was low so that the prediction for a large take from a guy who had done it many times was spot on.

That's interesting info

Fisher really took over after the 'coon rabies of about 25 years ago. We had a fair amount of 'coon and only a few fisher, but the rabies nailed them, which I and others believe left room for the fisher to take up the slack. Plenty of fisher now and still no big numbers of 'coon like before. We used to see mid day 'coon and 'coon full of porky quills, which told the story, sick. Had some mid day skunks too. One got into a dog pen next door after I saw him at the house. And then there was canine distemper at times, but those animals were not aggressive like rabies, just disoriented. Years ago, in the 60's, there was a 50 cent bounty on porkies. As kids at scout camp we would paddle around the pond and night, hear them chewing, climb up a tree and knock them out so we could keep them as temporary pets in a pen in the Nature Lodge. Always remember how smelly they were.

We have quite a few down by me. Used to have one I would see weekly in the morning down the road when I lived next to the neversink River. Loved the pines and fallen timber over there. Would see where they chewed on a bunch of trees and just deadfall everywhere. Saw one down at the bashakill this past season by an old camp and it would be walking out of the cabins as I saw it each time. Guess it was chewing on the structures. Had him in the middle of the road and floored it and then realized it would destroy my tires and slammed the breaks, hopped out and chased it into the woods but they are quick. The only places I see porkys are in fisher habitat

When we at Scout Camp as kids they told us not to be peeing on the wood buildings as the porkies would chew it. Have heard they chew on tires too. I guess a few of them around is plenty.