I always have the best luck camera trapping Canids in December and January. This is a phenomenon other "trappers" have made anecdotal observations about in regards to Bobcats and Mountain Lions...although I haven't had much (or any) experience with either species.
Allow me to show you an example from my time in North Carolina.
The pictures below are almost a year old.
The location is a stream corridor with steep banks, one side buffered by deciduous hardwood forest....the other side has a power line right-of-way running parallel. Great spot for 'yotes to run.
And they do....
For those interested, I'm applying a dab of Lennon's Brand, Super Coyote All-Call to the stick poking out of the bank.
It's also worth noting that I don't make any attempt to cover my own scent when I'm out.
Not long before a big old 'yote comes along to check out the smell.....
To be fair, this isn't the only time I put some sort of scent lure out at this location to attract critters. It doesn't always work this perfectly....but when it does it always makes me feel smarter than I am :)
Enjoy the Canid Season!
I've got to get to work on my Canids camera trapping also.
ReplyDeleteI like the wild canids! Usually, I get tons of photos of them at this time of year.... but not this year. I don't know why.
ReplyDeleteWhere do you buy your scent lures? I'm having such terrible luck that I'm starting to think that I should give one a try.
Howdy- new to your blog, and haven't had time to backtrack...so I just have one quick question for now: Do you use anything to make your scent "stick"? I'm conducting a field study this spring using cameras and scents and want to maximize my usage of scent lures, as they can be expensive. Also, what state are you in?
ReplyDeleteHey all! Thanks for reading...
ReplyDeleteKB: do you get any wolves over by you? I seem to remember talk of some over by Fort Collins and Colorado Springs?
The best place to pick up lures like these, in my opinion is the F&T Fur Harvester's Trading Post (see link below). It's a great site for stuff like this. Now, the effectiveness of each varies by brand, location and season! So it takes some playing around. I've messed around with a number of brands, and had variable success. For Canids...you can also just use plain old Urine (which you can buy at F&T). I've read info from a guy out west (Montana) who uses coyote urine for everything and has very good success. I know here in the miwest, Coyote urine works good for Coyote...but I've heard that Wolves don't pay it much mind...and you have to use Wolf urine for wolves. I've used a combination of a gland lure and coyote urine in North Carolina and had good luck with Coyote and Gray Fox.
The biggest mistake I made early on with lures was I over-did it. I dab the size of a bean and a spray of urine, is all it takes. Especially for coyotes, which are so wary of anything abnormal. Also, location is key!! If you don't have a good spot, all the lure in the world doesn't matter.
For cats, I've read scent is good...but "fladry" is equally important, becuase they are so visually oriented (so a feather hanging from a tree with fishing line and a swivel). They like to come investigate things like that.
http://www.fntpost.com/Categories/Trapping/
you'll see an area for "baits, lures and urines" etc.
Hi Alyssa: Thanks for stopping by! Scent lures can be expensive. I don't currently do anything to make scents stick....although, I've seen some things folks have done to help keep them from washing away.
If you check this link out...there's a fella who posts on this forum named "Oneguy", who is a font of wisdom when it comes to luring critters into cameras.... He described something he does to protect lures once they are out.
http://www.chasingame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=19394&start=15
I'm currently in WI.