While I don't post much, I thought that I would share that I'm getting closer to my lifetime list of thirty-three furbearers. 2023 has so far been good to me and hopefully I'll be able to complete my goal before I go to the big trapline in the sky, or my wife sells my traps. Whichever comes first.
In early January, I added western spotted skunk, hog nosed skunk, hooded skunk and ringtail to my collection. In March, I finally had everything align with the weather and managed to take a couple arctic fox. That only leaves coati and mountain lion. A trip is already planned for another go at the coati in December and hopefully for mountain lion in January 2024. Three coati were observed while I was cage trapping in Arizona this past January. I passed on shooting my yearly limit of one out of those three in hope that one would enter one of my cages. No such luck. My gut tells me that mountain lion will be the more formidable challenge as the area that I intend to trap has but a few big cats and the time that I will need to invest to be successful will probably be measured in months. My upcoming second retirement will hopefully allow for the needed time. My previous attempt at mountain lion was educational but unsuccessful. I had lion sets out for a specific cat for five weeks. I had to pull because of family obligations. Man... I sure didn't want to pull those sets.
Here's what has stumbled into my sets so far and was legally harvested: black bear, wolverine, marten, fisher, otter, mink, longtail, short tail and least weasel, badger, eastern spotted, western spotted, striped, hog nosed and hooded skunks, arctic, red, grey, swift and kit fox, coyote, wolf, red squirrel, beaver, nutria, muskrat, coon, possum, bobcat, lynx and ringtail. After I get my five new mounts back from the taxidermist, I'll share a picture of my mounts if there is any interest.
In case some of you are wondering, it's taken me forty-eight seasons, twelve states and a whole bunch of money to get me where I'm at today.
