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...