musher and others: Bear? wolf?

[trappnman]

had this when I pulled traps- screen nearby balled up with blood on it, hardly a catch circle, no tracks/scat/sign except for a 4x4"
divot. scratch marks and a little blood on jaws. Whatever it was, there for a very short time-

any thoughts?








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[musher]

Impossible to tell. Any fur on the jaws? The chain doesn't seem stretched so things happened fast. The balled up screen would remove any large grazing critter. Do you have bear and wolf in your area?

[trappnman]

a minimal number of each- bear were seen a mile away during fall, and always a chance of a wolf.
lori thinks bear because (and I tend to agree) you might see canine tracks before the flat footprint of a bear-

but I'm totally unfamiliar with either

no fur on jaws

[TRay]

Are your j hooks on your swivels welded? I usually see the j-hooks bend before the jaw pops out. But my jaws are laminated. My guess would be bear, if not a person screwing with you.

[musher]

Is the last photo pumpkins?!! Do bears eat pumpkins? What would be the food source for either wolf or bear in the area? It's awfully late for bears but I saw tracks again yesterday.

I tend to agree with Lori but the claws do show up fairly well even if the pad doesn't. Some digging in had to occur so it could power out. I also don't know why the animal would ball up the screen once caught for a few seconds unless it actually bit the trap with the screen still in the trap.

[trappnman]

no, swivels not welded- from memory I can't remember how they were- normal or starting to open- I'll look tomorrow out of curiosity

yes- pumpkins- had all those to toss after Halloween, so decided to line them up on a pond dike- about 200 yards from road- they should show up great in the snow- I'm curious if farmer will mention them to me-

I'd guess screen still in trap

[TRay]

Had a trap look like that once, guy tried to run my coyote over with his snowmobile. He was successful but managed to hook a ski on my chain/trap and left part of it laying in the catch circle.

[trappnman]

one can hope the ski broke at least!

no, nothing like that could have occurred

[RdFx]

Interesting, if one only knew and had a trail cam set up to watch set !!

[trappnman]

yes, would like to have seen it-

you get this snow? we had a inch or so yesterday, but rained all night- only snow I can see is neighbor who shoveled yesterday

[reabhnt]

Looks like my #2 victors. When coyotes first started moving in. During the early 70's.

[trappnman]

montana jaws are bent, and tipped- and end was intact- the real key is lack of any catch circle

[Mike Wilhite]

Interesting.

I catch a few wolves incidental to coyote trapping with most of them being young, 50-70 pounds and a couple I figure were around 80 pounds. Even those will start the j-hooks opening on the swivels. Caught one wolf this year that would likely tip the scales at 100 pounds (had to get help letting him go!). I have yet to have one bend a Montana trap like that though, even the bigger critters. They will raise heck on the swivels and chains but never had a trap blow a part.

Sasquatch??

Mike

[trappnman]

my personal thought is bear- although a friend told me he had similar with a big dog

[RdFx]

Mike did you get anyone to collar the big wolf? Wisconsins Nathan Roberts is looking for wolves to collar fm trappers. I believe he has collared alot of cats already fm trappers without tags...

[Mike Wilhite]

No I didn't Lee. I talked to Steve at Crex Meadows about it and he did say they were looking to collar some. Problem is, when I'm in full trapping mode I don't have time to wait around for some one to show up. In that particular case I would have had to deviate off my line a ways just to get cell phone reception. Now if I catch one tomorrow I have all kinds of time as I only have a handful of traps out now. I would have liked to seen that bigger one collared too but I like to be done and skinning before dark.

Also, I trap mostly private land with some adjoining public land and more than one of the landowners and or their neighbors or John Q. Public would not be as friendly to the wolf as I am if they come across them. That hasn't been a problem yet and I don't want it to be so, I take care of them as quickly as possible.

[RdFx]

Ditto on yr thoughts Mike as i have same situations as you on the trapline. Only way i could help is call and see if biologist could come and i could come back in a sensible amount of time not leaving animal in trap for a long time. I dont blame a wolf being a wolf but i do understand farmers ect but not the hound hunters, being a hound man years back when one has his or her hounds out its the prey ect injuring the hound in process of hunt and thats the chance you take.

[bblwi]

Steve,
To me and I don't catch near the large predators most of you do it could be a large canine, like large wolf or large domestic dog or bear. In your location Steve with the big river I would not rule out a straight lion either. One large leap from a say 100 lbs. lion and it sure would look like that I would guess.

Bryce

[trappnman]

the things that really stood out-

no blood, except for the screen literally balled up and bloody next to the set-

and no sign of being there very long- it happened almost instantly since there were no tracks, human or otherwise (grass area) no scat, nothing but a 4x4 maybe 3" deep divot in the pattern

[RdFx]

Hmm, almost think Bryces idea of big cat. They have enormous explosive strength. Boy wouldnt a trail cam if one knew and the scene or video it would have shown...