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Post by esshup on Jun 3, 2015 19:49:11 GMT -5
I saw a dirt pile by a maple tree that fell over by the pond, and found where the "hidden" escape hole is - no dirt near it.
I placed a Conibear 220 in the opening, and I'm catching way more than I expected.
Does anybody know how many adults live in one den?
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Post by moose1am on Jun 7, 2015 6:41:32 GMT -5
I'm not sure. Can you tell if they are adults or young of the year? I would assume that two adults would have ONE den site and maybe have some young that they eventually kick out of the family den when they get older.
What may be happening is that as you take out the adults other woodchucks may be trying to move into the unoccupied den and getting caught by your traps. But that's just a guess. I'm not a trapper as my experience in trapping ended up with me catching one of my neighbor's dogs in my trap. And that stopped me from placing traps anymore. I hear that today they make dog proof traps for raccoons. I use a live animal trap these days and have been having good success with it.
I do know for a fact that some woodchucks (ground hogs)like apples. We caught one ground hog climbing up in my neighbors small apple tree many years ago. I used a fishing net to try to catch him after he jumped down out of the tree and tried to run away. But he chewed right though the netting material and fell out of the net leaving a big hole in my dads fishing net. He was not a happy camper at first but we fixed the net by sewing the hole back up with some string.
The other day while driving down the road I saw a turkey perched up in a small tree about 25 yards off the side of the road. It was dusk and I had a hard time telling what it was at first. But based on my past experience with the tree climbing ground hog about 50 years ago, my first though was it was a ground hog up in that tree. I stopped the truck, backed up, and got the binoculars out to see what it was. It was a wild turkey which promptly flew down from the tree after I backed the truck up to see what it was. It vanished into the tall weeds below the tree. But the dark object half way up the tree reminded me of that ground hog up in the tree 50 years ago. Funny how your past has an effect on what you think you see these days.
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Post by esshup on Jun 7, 2015 8:56:10 GMT -5
They are all adults, unless the ones born this year are 7#-10#.  I set the trap at their "hidden" den entrance, and only caught one going in, all the rest were caught coming out. 2 males, 2 females (one looked like she was nursing) and one undetermined because something ate it out of the trap - only left some fur and the tail. Nothing in the trap for the past 5 days. |
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Post by featherduster on Jun 7, 2015 10:12:41 GMT -5
HOW MUCH WOOD COULD THOSE WOOD CHUCKS HAVE CHUCKED IF YOU HADN'T TRAPPED THEM?
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Post by firstwd on Jun 7, 2015 12:42:38 GMT -5
They are a colony animal, so quite a few cam be there. The young stick around until they are at least 2 like beaver as well. We killed more than 30 from under one building at the Franklin County Fairgrounds a few years ago. We kept the bodies for proof when we handed over the bill since it was a per animal job.
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Post by esshup on Jun 7, 2015 17:54:00 GMT -5
HOW MUCH WOOD COULD THOSE WOOD CHUCKS HAVE CHUCKED IF YOU HADN'T TRAPPED THEM? None. I have plenty of wood waiting to be split and some in log lengths and other than trying to dig under it, they never touched it! |
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