Family-Outdoors

Iowa fur harvesters will find good numbers of raccoons, coyotes, bobcats, river otters, mink, and, with all likelihood, other trappers in the countryside when the furbearer trapping and hunting season opens on Nov. 2. “Population-wise, all species are doing quite well except for muskrats and gray fox,” said Vince Evelsizer, furbearer biologist for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.  “Trappers who typically pursue muskrats could do well this year if they switch to coyotes and raccoons, and to some extent mink or red fox.” Muskrats are a bread-and-butter species for Iowa trappers, but the population took a significant hit last year after the drought left many Iowa wetlands dry heading in to winter. This year, wetlands are in better shape but the muskrats are not there. “It will take a few years for the population to come back,” Evelsizer said. What has come back and in a big way is the number of fur harvesters. The number of fur harvesters varies with the fur market a...

ATHENS, OH – For the second year in a row, more than 100 bobcats have been shown to be living in Ohio’s southeastern counties with the confirmation of 136 sightings by state wildlife officials during 2011, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ (ODNR) Division of Wildlife. The reports show an increase from the 106 verified sightings in 2010. The bobcat is listed as an endangered species in Ohio and is protected by state law. Bobcats once roamed across Ohio during early settlement, but as more people settled within the state, their numbers diminished. By the year 1850, bobcats no longer lived in Ohio. However, a handful of unverified sightings of the bobcat in the 1960s announced the introduction of the return of the Ohio bobcat. Since 1970, there have been 691 bobcat sightings in 38 counties verified by state wildlife biologists. The majority of wildcat-verified reports for 2011 occurred in Noble County and surrounding counties. The bobcat may be verified with p...