Animal instincts

Set half a dozen pig snares today, went out and dumped some leftover watermelon. It’s 8:15pm about to be dark in 30 minutes or so. Scared a cat that’s been on the property. Than noticed a coon coming up the fence line. He stopped right where the snare is under the fence. Smelled it full circle and walked away. The snares have sat in the woods unset for a couple weeks. Just had a nice rain, was curious of anyone response with animals noticing snares.

Probably smelled the Vienna sausage juice on your hands from lunch.

My boy's game cam showed several coons stopping and sniffing snares and BG's that had been set in trails back in 2010. This was in January after the traps and snares had been treated in October and left out for months to air through rain, snow, cold and warm weather but can't say how he handled them when setting. I do know a coon's nose along with his other senses, are set for sniffing and on alert that time of year here (January). Needless to say I switched trap treatment after that but believe that any/all "NEW" odors they detect will alert wildlife to a degree. Previous odors they have already formulated a response to - "fight, flight, hug, eat etc.. The key is at what level does an odor (new or previous) get a response..........................Game cams have made a liar out of me more than once.........................................the mike

I believe since we have the ability to catch some of the critters we think we have more figured out than we do

Rain on cable most likely gave off a smell everything has a smell more so to critters.

Not only can smell be an issue, but most importantly is sight. An animal should never see a snare or trap until it's caught.

How clean where your gloves when you set them? Perhaps a secondary smell from your gloves got onto the snares even though you thought you had clean gloves?

My hogs have shown me they wise up to traps every time one closes and they weren't in it but I have yet to see any sign they refuse snares. That being said, if the cattle are not on the pasture I am in I still set up crawl unders and crawl thrus but I set out in the wide open trail where they are traveling at a much faster rate and it works exceptionally well.

Smoked Oysters

Thats one other reason why I wax my snares.Unwaxed snares can be detected by animals when the metal oxidizes.
Animals can also see the outline of a snare if the outline is not broken somewhat.This will lead them to investigate further with their other senses.

I don’t think wax would work, temps average has been low 90’s.

I've had coons come in down wind while predator calling,and had them wind me at least 100 yrds. away.

Do you realy think that coon knew what that the snare was ?

Probably not but it was something different, so was worth investigating

Everything gives off a smell, doesn’t matter what kind of treatment you give it, the trick is to not trigger the fight or flight instinct, by human smell or blood or other orders that trigger fear, or the o good food response by contamination by bait, blood, lure ect or smells that trigger other unwanted responses

What you want is a neutral smell that they will mostly ignore, because it has no real associations with fear, food or other response triggers

You say that’s why I wax it seals in the trap smell, sorry to tell you wax has its own smell, heck even my old nose can detect it when held close, but in most cases it’s a neutral smell for which animals have no response to unless they have encountered it in a negative way before

Same goes for trap dyes and dips, just because you can’t smell it doesn’t mean an animal can’t, but to most of them it’s a neutral smell so they ignore it, it’s when they become contaminated with other smells that problems come along

Just my .02 worth take it for what it cost ya

Nightlife wrote:
Probably not but it was something different, so was worth investigating

Everything gives off a smell, doesn’t matter what kind of treatment you give it, the trick is to not trigger the fight or flight instinct, by human smell or blood or other orders that trigger fear, or the o good food response by contamination by bait, blood, lure ect or smells that trigger other unwanted responses

What you want is a neutral smell that they will mostly ignore, because it has no real associations with fear, food or other response triggers

You say that’s why I wax it seals in the trap smell, sorry to tell you wax has its own smell, heck even my old nose can detect it when held close, but in most cases it’s a neutral smell for which animals have no response to unless they have encountered it in a negative way before

Same goes for trap dyes and dips, just because you can’t smell it doesn’t mean an animal can’t, but to most of them it’s a neutral smell so they ignore it, it’s when they become contaminated with other smells that problems come along


That is very good logical thinking. I like it. Thanks for sharing
Mac

30 minutes or so

This maybe the key to why the coon smelled you.
It may take a little more time for your scent pool to disapate

They have been in the woods about 3 weeks now. I “pull them up” on Sunday and set them back to catch on Thursday evening after work. I leave the house around 530am so skinning a pig Monday through Thursday isn’t something I want to do. Human scent is everywhere around there between me and the kids throwing old fruit and vegetables out by the feeder. Just something different to see and wondered if pigs did the same.

Just because it sniffed it all around doesn’t mean it’s odor is what scared the coon from going through. If it saw it and thought it was out of place, the coon would surely smell it to investigate. It may have just looked a little too different compared to what that coon was used to seeing? That coon may have been snared before? No way to know for sure. Raccoons are surely not deterred by human scent.

If you wax properly there is hardly any wax on the snare and the smell is ambient(smell is what the bush smells like).Induced smells of any sort is what you want to avoid.Smells that belong(ambient)are perfectly fine.