Caught my first cat this season (yay!) . MN requires you to register your cats. They provide a form on the MN DNR website to fill out ahead of time prior to registering it. They want to know different stuff like where you caught it etc. That's where I'm a little stumped, maybe someone from MN can help me with this? One of the things they want to know is TWP # I assume that means township number? I know the township but I don't know its number. How do I find out its number? And it also asks for range # and says I only need to fill out Range Direction (E/W) if it's 1-6. I have no idea what that means. They show little tiny maps in the hunting and trapping regulations handbook for the different zones but I don't see anything like range numbers on them. The only thing I found that might match what they're talking about is the different deer hunting zones, which is 100-700 but I assume that's not it. I can't find any maps that explain what they're talking about. It says loosely the E/W dividing point is near Grand Marais but again they don't explain it any further. What are these ranges they're talking about? I know I could just ask the DNR about this but most likely I'd have to call and I hate talking on the phone so I'm hoping someone here knows lol. Thanks in advance!

Yeah my partner and I both caught cats in Wisconsin and it’s a royal pain in the arse hear also.

If you have a plat book,find the township page the Range and North.Where I live Roseau County Laona twp is 161 n 35 w for an example.Hope this helps.

Easiest way to find it...

Go to the MN DNR's recreational compass: https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/maps/compass.html

Scroll to the spot you caught the animal and click on it with the mouse.

A pop up will come up, and it will have a bunch of information on it. The third lines is "PLS: ..." Look at the rest of the line and it will tell you the number following the letter abbreviating the Township (T) Range (R) and Section (S)

It's surveying lingo, a section is a square mile, a township is 6 miles by 6 miles, or 36 sections. Each township is "named" by a #N/S and a #E/W. So for example you have township 32N 4W, or it is sometimes written T32N R4W. The number that is followed by W or E is the range number. Before GPS became prevalent, most maps had an overlay grid of townships on them, and the majority of them even had the sections overlayed on them. Finding a map that was labeled in latitude and longitude was rare, now with handheld GPS giving out coordinates in lat and long it has flipped and most maps are labeled with lat and long rather than township, range and section.

And Mike Kelly beat me to it while I was typing.

I have a plot book of my county I trap in. I go to the township where my catches are made. I shows at the top of the page.

Thanks! That's very helpful. They should mention that map somewhere in the regulations book or at least with the registration form cause I can't be the only person that doesn't know what those numbers are or where to find them. It looks like my range number isn't 1-6, so according to the little instructions they give I don't need to fill out E/W on the form.

yes those E and W is from where the principal meridian is. very important to include
a township ;
consider a square with 36 blocks in it, numbering starts in lower right corner #1 to the left is # 2 -to 6 then up left corner to 7 then right over to 12 then up to 13 and so forth to 36

Wow! Trapping in the lower 48 sounds like a nightmare.

JP it is, Wisconsin reference.

Just write in some random numbers,they wont know the difference,lol.(JK)

Seriously,didnt they cover all that in your trapping course?

Dang. That's a lot of work. We just turn in the jaws with a tag on it saying where, when, and and gender. My only gripe is who am I do assume the gender of a bobcat. Plus they don't have a they/them option.

Yeah, it says you only need to put E/W if your range # is 1-6. -shrugs-

Pretty sure they didn't, unless I missed it for some reason. Guess there wasn't enough reason to teach us that, the main thing they taught was stuff like ethics and how to set traps and skin animals, and animal ID, etc. Not to mention I took the course 13 years ago. Can't believe how long it's been already.

Yeah I thought it was a little bit lame when I found out you have to register certain animals and with some you also need a validation coupon too. Luckily you don't have to register anything else, it's just a few animal species. Although every year after most seasons are done they send a card for you to fill out what you caught that season (at least here in MN), they'll keep sending them until you send one back, a few times I kept forgetting to fill it out and send it lol. Supposedly they use that info to help them determine how to set seasons in the future or etc. With bobcats they have to be registered cause lynx are protected here and they look a lot like lynx. So one of the things they do is check to make sure it's actually a bobcat you caught. It just so happens that I live in a lynx management zone so there's extra rules that apply to how you can set a trap here. Like if you set a conibear on land (220 I think is the biggest legal size to use on land cause the jaw size has to be 7.5 inches or smaller, 220's are 7") it has to either be 3 feet off the ground in a tree/on a pole, or in a cubby set 7 inches from the opening and the opening has to be 50 square inches. I was pretty annoyed with that cause animals will be more shy to go into the trap. Pretty sure I've missed a few coons and foxes because of it, but I do still catch them. You can't use rabbit or hare for bait either. Guess that means lynx really like rabbits and hares being they made it illegal to use them here. The list does go on. I still trap though. At least it's not as bad as some other states, I forget which one it was, Maryland maybe? I read some article that it's almost entirely illegal to set traps there, guess they have too many rules so some trappers there resort to using cage traps.

There is one way to tell what gender it is. Being a cat person I've been around them enough to where I'm pretty sure all the males have a funny looking patch of fur near their butt, haven't known any females to have that. That's how I was able to tell my bobcat was a male, it had that funny looking patch of fur. I could try to upload a pic of what I'm talking about cause I left that patch on the pelt. I skinned it so we could possibly have it mounted if we wanted to, when you do that you try to leave as much fur on it as possible, the more the better.

There are registration days after the respective seasons close. I just did my otter on January 16, I believe it was. If you don’t have the form filled out properly, the warden or recorder will help you fill it in. The wardens here in southern Mn are pretty decent to work with.

Way more complicated than it needs to be. Just my observation. I used to think MN had some decent laws but I currently have reservations.