Near the HPIC on Tuesday on the Van Hoevenberg trail we met a DEC employee who was carrying traps (live I assume) and beaver meat soaked in very odoriferous skunk extract. The skunk odor was to spark the fishers' curiosity and draw them to the baited traps. We didn't ask why but thought census. Perhaps someone here would have some insight into this.
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Originally posted by Neil View PostNear the HPIC on Tuesday on the Van Hoevenberg trail we met a DEC employee who was carrying traps (live I assume) and beaver meat soaked in very odoriferous skunk extract. The skunk odor was to spark the fishers' curiosity and draw them to the baited traps. We didn't ask why but thought census. Perhaps someone here would have some insight into this.“Death is the only wise advisor that we have. Whenever you feel, as you always do, that everything is going wrong and you're about to be annihilated, turn to your death and ask if that is so. Your death will tell you, 'I haven't touched you yet.” Carlos Castenada
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Originally posted by toothlessannie View PostNeil. while I'm not sure exactly what you saw, I do know the department is currently running studies on Fisher in the catskills and in western ny, but not in the high peaks area; maybe you saw a trapper going about his/her business?
Although I could be wrong, I believe she said the skunk scent was an attractant, and separate from the beaver meat, which was the bait. I do not believe the meat was doused in the skunk scent.Scooting here and there
Through the woods and up the peaks
Random Scoots awaits (D.P.)
"Pushing the limits of easy."™
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Originally posted by randomscooter View PostNo, she was definitely a DEC employee. I spoke with her. The traps she was using were constructed from re-purposed emerald ash borer traps (don't ask me the details!).
Although I could be wrong, I believe she said the skunk scent was an attractant, and separate from the beaver meat, which was the bait. I do not believe the meat was doused in the skunk scent.
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In WNY, I've set successful photo "traps" for fisher, using raw meat. When I've seen fisher tracks, I attach my trail camera to a tree; to a different tree, I attach the meat in a mesh bag tied five or six feet off the ground. Usually the fisher eventually returns to the same area, scents the meat, and climbs the baited tree, giving me my photo.
I've heard that fur trappers sometimes use a similar technique for fisher, except that they place the meat in a wooden box in a tree so that the fisher must pass over a trap to get at the meat.
What the DEC folks were actually doing, I don't know, though.
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