Caught my first bobcat yesterday! Had 5 sets out. We had some weather including rain and snow, but I still ended up with a cat in a trap!
It's a male, and the taxidermist said it was a pretty good sized cat for around here. Seems kinda big to me, but I really have no clue. I'm 6'2" and 235lbs for size reference. I thought he had a pretty belly.
I didn't put him on a scale, but I would guess he weighed right around 20lbs.
Thought I had a pretty good catch on him, but with the wet conditions the stake ended up pretty loose. I was able to pull it out very easily with one hand. Based on the way his foot is caught he must have put his full weight on his left foot right on top of the trap.
I can't decide whether to do a full body mount on him, or just get him garment tanned with feet and claws on. I'm leaning toward the garment tanning.That's it for now. Nathan
19 comments:
I'm not against the killing part when it's done humanely. But I don't understand how you could do that. How can you hurt and trap an animal like that? How would your hand feel in that trap? Or worse yet, your son or someone else's accidentally being in that trap? Even if the trap didn't hurt, do you know how freaked out it must have been? I just don't get it.
I meant to comment on this way back when this anonymous post was made, but somehow I missed it.
I've actually caught my fingers in a trap on accident and then on purpose to show people that unlike what you hear many say, a trap doesn't break bones or anything like that. It hurt, but nothing unbearable.
Modern day traps are very safe and if my son happened to stick his foot in a trap I doubt it would hurt him at all unless he was running around bare foot and even then it would just hurt a little, but not cause any actual injuries.
When I walked up on the bobcat in the trap it was sitting there calmly, not freaked out at all. Some trappers have even reported arriving at their trap to find the animal actually asleep so I don't think they are as freaked out as some might think.
Just thought I would clear that up in case someone else actually comes across this post.
Nathan
How can you do that... You're sick. Put your kid's hand in the trap to test it next time.
Anonymous, obviously you didn't read my reply to the other anti who posted anonymously as well. I've put my own hand in the trap to test it before. Trapping is a very effective and useful tool in wildlife management.
Beautiful cat! It used to be part of the trapping courses that you had to put your hand in a trap. A lot of people simply don't understand trapping and life in general. They think that walking into a walmart and being able to buy whatever they want is a given. Instead of the historical exception it is. Trapping when done correctlty is very ethical.
So shameful. What a waste of a soul and species, it's a shame the government only bans stuff like this when the species becomes close to extinct. How is this right? I would accept it and say it's ok if it's trying to kill you and is a life and death situation, or if you needed its fur to stay warm in winter. But the dark ages are gone and there's no excuse for this. I would be distraught if someone killed my cat for its fur... Please think about what you're doing. Humans have done enough damage, people like you just make everything worse.
I did in fact keep the fur as that was one of the reasons that I worked so hard to trap a bobcat. Another reason was to limit the amount of predators on my property to help ensure viable bird populations. I have lots of Turkey, Quail and many songbirds that I get to enjoy because I manage the predators on my property. In nature the predator prey relationship will go through dramatic boom and bust cycles where the predators get too dense and kill off most of the prey species and then starve to death and then the cycle repeats itself. By managing the population it allows a constant healthy population of predators and prey species that we can all enjoy. Cats are very adapt predators and depending on the source are responsible for killing millions of birds and other animals each year. Housecats are the worst as they often kill simply for the enjoyment of killing and just leave the dead birds laying there. I hope you keep your cat indoors. If not I'm sure your housecat has killed more animals and birds than I ever will.
Dude you are disgusting,but karma exists... You are going to die of cancer....
Your argument is nonsense, dogs ala kills birds, so you are going to kill dogs....Birds kills insects, so you are going to kill birds?
Thanks for the well wishes. You seem like a really nice person hoping for people you don't know to die a painful and slow death.
I do in fact kill birds... Dove and Quail are very tasty.
I understand hunting to an extent for overpopulation in the case of deer and Hogs but these are not predators I have never heard of predators running out of prey ever anywhere things may be tight in the desert but the natural life cycle keeps in balance and will keep in balance after us probably in better balance with all the animals we have already brought to Extinction or close to and relocated in man's attempt to "balance" but only making things worse you can't say that killing one or two Bobcats a year is going to save you that many birds and there's other ways to do it get a donkey they are very protective and will fight off predators or trained dogs if it's that important to you to have so many birds so that you have more to kill yourself then you can find another way to do it
I'm Native American and my people pride ourselves on using everything not just the fur and then not even counting all of that you do it in a cheating manner it's the same as feeding animals year round to trick them in a sense if you're so worried about protecting your land go out with a gun and protect your land trapping is so dirty and I bet you didn't even shoot it in the head more concerned with your trophy then it's last minutes on Earth and then you sound so happy when talking about it that's what makes it disgusting there is nothing happy about taking a life my people did it for food and clothing and gave thanks for it but we don't have to do that anymore you're not going to eat a bobcat and I'm pretty sure you're not walking around in Furrs I'm also pretty sure most people know that the food doesn't just magically appear in Walmart we just decide to go there instead of Taking Lives that aren't necessary and unless you're in the fur industry it's not going to do you much good to have dead body parts excuse me fur or stuffed animals around your house collector of carcasses looking ass LOL I can understand Dove and quail if that's what you want to eat and most stores don't sell that
The last three posts are all from me
Thanks for the comments Vera. I deleted the last one because the language was a little too bad for me to want to leave it and it appear that I approved of that kind of thing.
I was proud of my accomplishment because it actually took a lot of work and a lot of failure before I was able to trap the bobcat. Believe it or not, it takes a lot of skill to be able to get something to put it's foot in a couple square inches of dirt when it could freely walk anywhere it wants. That is still the only bobcat that I have trapped, although I haven't ever set specifically for a bobcat since either. Many folks kill them on sight just like a coyote, but I can't bring myself to do that as their fur is so soft when you wait until they are prime and that's the only time I will kill one. I'm not sure there is anything as soft, although people say beaver fur is really soft too.
I'm pretty sure this particular bobcat would be dead from natural causes by now, sickness, another animal could have killed it or maybe it would have just gotten old and died. There are plenty of bobcats on my property and I routinely see them around. You are probably right, taking one or two in the 10 years I've owned the place probably isn't going to do anything to help the wildlife from predation, as it hasn't seemed to affect the overall population of bobcats.
No one sticks up for the poor raccoons that I trap. No one thinks twice about trapping rats or mice around their homes. A bobcat is a lot prettier and it's fur is a lot softer than either of those, but I'm not sure it has more of a soul or can understand rational thought any better than a raccoon or a rat or a mouse.
This is repulsive. What a disgusting human to behave like such a monster. The animals are beautiful alive and healthy - killing them dissolves that beauty. You're out of touch. People don't want to see your heartless murders or dead bodies. Ending a life only makes you a coward, why would you be proud of that?
Actually, don't answer that. There's nothing you could say to redeem yourself. The least you could do is try to correct your path and stop bringing harm to the planet, but I doubt you'll have the intellect to comprehend that. You should be ashamed of yourself for killing helpless animals you've trapped in their natural home and then simply murdered them because they were injured and couldn't run. I can't even believe you think this is justified.
Your severe underestimation of their intelligence is a reflection of just how very very little you know about them.
Aww poor snowflake.
Oh so you killed an innocent creature because it’s fur was “pretty” to you? When now in “modern times” (something you are way behind on.) there are plenty of cruelty free options in the world. Like another poster said I really hope karma is out to get you bud. And i hope you are not teaching your kids this way and if you are hope they have some common sense and realize what a tortuous foul POS you are. Have a terrible day ����.
I always appreciate the well wishes from people who value an animals life above a humans. I'm not sure that a bobcat qualifies as an innocent creature. Cats are one of the few animals that has a propensity to kill and then not eat what they kill. Ever see a housecat playing with a mouse for hours and then kill it and not eat it? I also wonder how some of these folks would react if they had a mouse or rat in their house. Would they trap it? What about a spider? I have no issue with trapping obviously. I think it is very effective and humane. Many trappers are able to selectively harvest target animals this way. If I had caught a female bobcat instead of a male bobcat I might have chosen to let it go instead of killing it. We have plenty of bobcats in the area that I trapped this cat almost 10 years ago. I've since killed one more with my rifle. I have it's hide as well.
why would you kill an almost extinct animal? it is not wrong but also not right either. Please think about it.
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