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A new one for me

Posted By: MJM

A new one for me - 06/25/22 01:11 PM

I set a cage over by the chicken coupe. Went and checked it this morning and found two adult male coon in the cage. Both had bob tails. I have caught two coon at once in a cage before, but never two bob tails. Bait was a hand full of mini marsh mellows.
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Posted By: trapdog1

Re: A new one for me - 06/25/22 01:16 PM

Sure would be interesting to know what happened to those two!
I catch a bobtail once in awhile, but it sure isn't common.
Posted By: 330-Trapper

Re: A new one for me - 06/25/22 01:40 PM

That's Cool MJM
Posted By: arcticotter

Re: A new one for me - 06/25/22 02:04 PM

Looks like a SD guy used them for the bounty. That’s funny
Posted By: trapdog1

Re: A new one for me - 06/25/22 02:04 PM

Originally Posted by arcticotter
Looks like a SD guy used them for the bounty. That’s funny

Mystery solved! grin
Posted By: MJM

Re: A new one for me - 06/25/22 02:25 PM

I catch a fair number of bob tailed coon. I would bet it is between 1 out of 20 and 1 out of 15. But two int he same cage at once? Come on man.
Life is harsh on the prairie. I have had plenty with a kink in the tail too.
Posted By: MChewk

Re: A new one for me - 06/25/22 02:47 PM

Nice job! Those two look like some of the Hoss’ I’ve been catching. Twenty pound coon in the Summer...my guess is come late Fall they would be pushing the 25+ pound mark. Sad that there is no value in wild fur.
Posted By: run

Re: A new one for me - 06/25/22 02:49 PM

Good work.
Posted By: cohunt

Re: A new one for me - 06/25/22 03:35 PM

Siblings, been together since birth. This has been documented in research. They are called dyads. Other animals such as African lions also exhibit the trait. The tails happened (likely the same time) when they were out in cold weather and tails got wet and froze. They shared most of life's experiences together including this final one.
Posted By: DWC

Re: A new one for me - 06/25/22 05:25 PM

Originally Posted by arcticotter
Looks like a SD guy used them for the bounty. That’s funny


Impossible! You sign an affidavit making it illegal to do so. Ive just come to the conclusion from driving the highways last couple years that south dakota has a large population of bobtails.
Posted By: beartooth trapr

Re: A new one for me - 06/25/22 05:43 PM

Good job, wow double bob tails
Posted By: Northof50

Re: A new one for me - 06/25/22 06:50 PM

Originally Posted by DWC
Originally Posted by arcticotter
Looks like a SD guy used them for the bounty. That’s funny


Impossible! You sign an affidavit making it illegal to do so. Ive just come to the conclusion from driving the highways last couple years that south dakota has a large population of bobtails.

Thumb up please insert here..............
Posted By: bucksnbears

Re: A new one for me - 06/26/22 01:36 AM

Hard to believe Dusty Dog let that many coon live without finishing the job? wink
Posted By: MJM

Re: A new one for me - 06/26/22 02:02 AM

Dusty dog is a has been, as of 23 Sept last fall. The weaner dog will fight coon, but its a bad outcome. She is a much better gopher dog. I am resetting tonight, but will be surprised if I make a catch. I did smell a skunk the other night.
Posted By: MJM

Re: A new one for me - 06/26/22 01:04 PM

Dry female this morning. I must be close to on location. Mini marsh mellows again.
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Posted By: Tactical.20

Re: A new one for me - 06/26/22 03:12 PM

Originally Posted by trapdog1
Sure would be interesting to know what happened to those two!
I catch a bobtail once in awhile, but it sure isn't common.

They fight like crazy, it happens once in a while, I've caught a few that way.
A raccoon is something you don't want to run into in a dark alley 😂
Posted By: MJM

Re: A new one for me - 06/26/22 05:59 PM

I do not agree with the tails freezing off. How do they freeze their tail and not their hands or feet? I have see plenty of coon with the entire tail and a kink in it or a couple joints that are fused from an injury. I feel they get bit and it gets infected and they loose it that way. I have caught them with bald spots on the tail from infections. Some were a real mess. They become bob tails in put up. I caught one one year that had lost all four feet above the wrist joint. I figure it was sleeping in a grass slough and go hit with a sickle mover. It was all healed up, but very skinny.
Posted By: claycreech

Re: A new one for me - 06/26/22 07:00 PM

Quick story.
Many years ago I was coon hunting. It had been bitterly cold for 2 or 3 weeks. Well below zero. Dogs got to digging at an old hollow log. They got a hole made and started going wild. Kicked a hole in the log big enough to see and pulled out 3 big, boar coon. They were lethargic from the hibernating state they were in. Their tails were solid balls of frozen urine. I’m talking ice balls the size of baseballs on their tails. Of course they had a bit of an odor lol.
Anyway, I always thought that could cause a coon to have a bobtail.
I don’t ever remember catching a sow coon that was bobtailed.
Most of those big, bobtailed boars are pretty rough when you get them scraped.
Posted By: eric space

Re: A new one for me - 06/26/22 11:46 PM

Bobtail coons, mink, fox , etc come from birth. Each is born with their own placenta and the mother cuts the umbilical cord with her teeth. Some mothers are not carful and nip the tail off at the same time. Most of the time she bobs the whole litter. Usta' have that with domestic mink, maybe about 1 out of 200 litters or so would be bobtails. When checking on the litters at about 24 hours after birth you could see the tail was freshly cut off. Sometimes the mother would go even further and take off one or both back feet along with the tail. Little domestic mink with no back feet survived just fine but doubt that would be so in the wild. This probably happened in 1 of 4000 litters. Have seen little bears born in our zoo twice in my lifetime with one back foot the mother bit off.
Posted By: eedup

Re: A new one for me - 06/27/22 12:48 AM

Bob tails ...ugly C or usually D color, skin hard .scrape hard
Posted By: MJM

Re: A new one for me - 06/27/22 01:26 PM

50 / 50 now on bob tails. and male / female. Another dry sow this morning. Four trap nights and four coon, with no catch the first night.
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Posted By: Northof50

Re: A new one for me - 06/27/22 02:03 PM

Honeyhole for sure
Posted By: MJM

Re: A new one for me - 06/27/22 02:28 PM

The cage is three feet from where we feed the chickens. There is always grain left over night. So It is set on a bait station.
Posted By: lee steinmeyer

Re: A new one for me - 06/27/22 04:01 PM

My feelings on bobtails differ with some of yall. Every bobtail I have ever scraped, and we have a lot too, is scarred bad and very hard to scrape that area. Some are that way all the way down the back, so I think the bobtails come from fighting in the dens during the winter months. They lay everywhich way on top of each other, and coon will fight at the drop of a hat. The original bad news bear! You get two or more old boar coon in the same hole, sooner or later the fur will fly!

Hi Mark, good job on the trash pandas!
Posted By: MJM

Re: A new one for me - 06/27/22 09:46 PM

lee I agree that it is from fighting. I hate scraping bob tails in the spring. They remind me of badgers. A spring coon is bad enough, but a bob tail spring coon is another level.
Posted By: MJM

Re: A new one for me - 07/01/22 02:50 PM

Another one this morning.
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