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Old 01-07-2017, 05:20 AM
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Default 1285 Fox

I thought some of you might find this intersting.

Some of you may have seen this on facebook, for those who haven't, how's this for a seasons catch?




I love the last comment.
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Old 01-07-2017, 06:36 AM
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Thats a busy busy man too bad they dont fetch a good price auction ..thanx for sharing keg
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Old 01-07-2017, 07:13 AM
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Quite a picture ,a lot of work and time in getting them. Im betting Martys barn pic of coyotes beats this guys paycheck by a long ways .
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Old 01-07-2017, 10:08 AM
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That guy sure goes hard, would be interesting to know some of his fox trapping technique. Now I know why we get such poor prices for our fox.
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Old 01-07-2017, 10:10 AM
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That guy sure goes hard, would be interesting to know some of his fox trapping technique. Now I know why we get such poor prices for our fox.
He posts a bit over on Trapperman.
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Old 01-07-2017, 10:23 AM
waterninja waterninja is offline
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1285 in one year? On a 100 mile trapline? That is unbelievable. WOW is right. you wouldn't think there could be that many foxes in that amount of area. What an awesome pic.
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Old 01-08-2017, 01:37 PM
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1285 in one year? On a 100 mile trapline? That is unbelievable. WOW is right. you wouldn't think there could be that many foxes in that amount of area. What an awesome pic.
I wonder if there are even that many Fox in all of Alberta.

It's not like I see one or more every day. If I see one a month I've seen a lot for that month.
And the tracks suggest I'm seeing all there is out there.
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Old 01-09-2017, 08:12 AM
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Keg, your Northern area probably has high wolf and coyote numbers. My guess is they are keeping the fox numbers in check. The Parkland areas in Alberta appear to produce high numbers of fox by guys targeting coyotes and catching fox in their snares.
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Old 01-09-2017, 11:34 PM
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Keg, your Northern area probably has high wolf and coyote numbers. My guess is they are keeping the fox numbers in check. The Parkland areas in Alberta appear to produce high numbers of fox by guys targeting coyotes and catching fox in their snares.
I lived in Wetaskiwin for 18 years, the rest of my 62 years on this planet have been spent in this area.

Things change. I don't know what it's like around central Alberta. Wetaskiwin, Camrose, Pigeon Lake, these days but I know that when I lived there there were far more Coyotes there then here.
And I know that the Coyote population here is about the same as it was when I was a kid.
And right now we have very few Fox and a ton of Wolves.

I don't see any connection between Coyote numbers and Wolf numbers.
The wolf population here was low up into the 1980s. Now it's very high, but the Coyote numbers seem about the same now as they were then.

I'm not sure about Fox, they haven't been around long enough for me to even start to draw any conclusions about their interaction with Wolves or Coyotes.

There were no Fox in the Wetaskiwin area when I lived there and next to none here back then either.
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Old 01-12-2017, 05:44 PM
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Things change. I don't know what it's like around central Alberta. Wetaskiwin, Camrose, Pigeon Lake, these days but I know that when I lived there there were far more Coyotes there then here.
And I know that the Coyote population here is about the same as it was when I was a kid.
And right now we have very few Fox and a ton of Wolves.
Keg, ever since you posted this I've been searching for an article on the internet that I read a couple of years ago. It explained in detail of how coyotes migrated in Alberta. According to the story, there never were any coyotes in northern portions of Alberta because it was all wolf territory. Amazingly, at least to me, not even 100 years ago there were very few coyotes even as far south as the Edmonton area where I am. All of the coyotes that we have now migrated from the plains in southern Alberta and worked their way north as more and more land was developed and the wolves pushed out. This may explain why you have fewer coyotes where you are as opposed to more southern regions.

I'm going to keep trying to find the article/info because it's pretty darned interesting.

PS. IMO it's just a matter of time before raccoons make the same migration and establish themselves farther and farther north.
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Old 01-12-2017, 06:01 PM
AlbertaAl AlbertaAl is offline
 
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Originally Posted by KegRiver View Post
I thought some of you might find this intersting.

Some of you may have seen this on facebook, for those who haven't, how's this for a seasons catch?




I love the last comment.
really ?????????
"Gullable" readers.. picture isn't real ... modified internet photo...jezzzzzzzzzzz
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Old 01-12-2017, 06:39 PM
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Maybe you just need to view the picture from a different angle, Al.

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Old 01-12-2017, 09:03 PM
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Keg, ever since you posted this I've been searching for an article on the internet that I read a couple of years ago. It explained in detail of how coyotes migrated in Alberta. According to the story, there never were any coyotes in northern portions of Alberta because it was all wolf territory. Amazingly, at least to me, not even 100 years ago there were very few coyotes even as far south as the Edmonton area where I am. All of the coyotes that we have now migrated from the plains in southern Alberta and worked their way north as more and more land was developed and the wolves pushed out. This may explain why you have fewer coyotes where you are as opposed to more southern regions.

I'm going to keep trying to find the article/info because it's pretty darned interesting.

PS. IMO it's just a matter of time before raccoons make the same migration and establish themselves farther and farther north.
Not to derail the thread but I seen a racoon at the farm that it east of wainwright 20 minutes, and my brother seen one working on a lease one day by red deer.


That fox number is insane, I wonder how many he's caught in the years from then till now.
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Old 01-12-2017, 11:20 PM
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Keg, ever since you posted this I've been searching for an article on the internet that I read a couple of years ago. It explained in detail of how coyotes migrated in Alberta. According to the story, there never were any coyotes in northern portions of Alberta because it was all wolf territory. Amazingly, at least to me, not even 100 years ago there were very few coyotes even as far south as the Edmonton area where I am. All of the coyotes that we have now migrated from the plains in southern Alberta and worked their way north as more and more land was developed and the wolves pushed out. This may explain why you have fewer coyotes where you are as opposed to more southern regions.

I'm going to keep trying to find the article/info because it's pretty darned interesting.

PS. IMO it's just a matter of time before raccoons make the same migration and establish themselves farther and farther north.
I read something similar. I don't doubt that much is true but it wouldn't have had anything to do with the presence of Wolves and it would have been well before my time.

Around here, there were as many Coyote when I was a kid as there are now. The Wolf numbers however have increased dramatically.

My dad came to the Peace country in 1927, there were about the same number of Coyotes then as there were when he died in 1988, or so he said.
And there were Wolves, more then there was when I was a kid from what dad said.

Fox were different. When he came into the country they were increasing.
By 1950 they were the staple of many trappers income. Then the rabies plaque and subsequent poisoning program wiped them out.
There were none anywhere in the district when I started learning how to trap. The first Fox I saw in the Peace district was a classic Silver that I saw east of Codotte lake in 1978.
The first Fox I caught walked into a Lynx snare of mine the winter of 1992.
Now I see them all over the north but there doesn't seem to be a lot of them.
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Old 01-12-2017, 11:25 PM
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Not to derail the thread but I seen a racoon at the farm that it east of wainwright 20 minutes, and my brother seen one working on a lease one day by red deer.


That fox number is insane, I wonder how many he's caught in the years from then till now.
They seem to be increasing in the province but I doubt they will ever be plentiful. I think our winters will keep their numbers low, and confined to the south.

Dad talked a lot about seeing Skunks in the Peace district when he moved here but not Raccoon.
He had learned trapping by trapping Raccoon in Nova Scotia when he was a kid but he often said he had never seen one west of Thunder Bay.

I saw them in Vancouver when I lived there in the early seventies. They were all over the place down there.
I hear reports of them here, some from family members but I've never seen one here or even a track of one.
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Old 01-13-2017, 04:50 PM
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Keg, my understanding is most racoon in Alberta are generally in Southern portion. It is probably result of migration north from Montana as weather has warmed in last few years. It is considered as a fur bearing animal in Alberta.
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Old 01-17-2017, 08:45 PM
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really ?????????
"Gullable" readers.. picture isn't real ... modified internet photo...jezzzzzzzzzzz
That pic and the man are as real as they come , Phil just broke the 1000 fox mark again this year as of a few days ago
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Old 01-18-2017, 12:10 AM
Marty S Marty S is offline
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I ran into Mr brown at the NAFA sale a couple of times... super nice guy! A hard working guy and a knowledgeable trapper. He gave me his pict and I got it blown up and is on the wall in the depot.
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Old 01-18-2017, 05:51 AM
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Impressive for sure, it's to bad they aren't worth much
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Old 01-18-2017, 05:55 AM
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Hard work pays off eh!
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Old 01-18-2017, 10:36 AM
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In support of Daves article on coyote migration the older trappers in BC claimed no coyotes then they finally migrated from Alberta.
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Old 01-18-2017, 12:36 PM
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In support of Daves article on coyote migration the older trappers in BC claimed no coyotes then they finally migrated from Alberta.
I'll keep trying to find the article but I haven't had any luck so far. Maybe I'll stumble upon it when I'm researching something else.
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Old 01-24-2017, 11:08 AM
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Keg, ever since you posted this I've been searching for an article on the internet that I read a couple of years ago. It explained in detail of how coyotes migrated in Alberta. According to the story, there never were any coyotes in northern portions of Alberta because it was all wolf territory. Amazingly, at least to me, not even 100 years ago there were very few coyotes even as far south as the Edmonton area where I am. All of the coyotes that we have now migrated from the plains in southern Alberta and worked their way north as more and more land was developed and the wolves pushed out. This may explain why you have fewer coyotes where you are as opposed to more southern regions.

I'm going to keep trying to find the article/info because it's pretty darned interesting.

PS. IMO it's just a matter of time before raccoons make the same migration and establish themselves farther and farther north.
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/fw/wildlife...ocs/coyote.pdf
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Old 01-24-2017, 11:24 AM
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I'll keep trying to find the article but I haven't had any luck so far. Maybe I'll stumble upon it when I'm researching something else.
http://www.ucalgary.ca/canid-lab/liv...e-distribution
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Old 01-24-2017, 11:47 AM
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Thanks, BB! I'm not sure if these were the articles that I read but they support what I mentioned about coyotes migrating to the north from southern regions of Alberta. In the grand scheme of things it wasn't all that long ago.....150 years? I find it very interesting and explains a lot about why coyote densities are the way they are in different regions of Alberta. Thanks again.

Last edited by HunterDave; 01-24-2017 at 12:11 PM.
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Old 01-24-2017, 12:05 PM
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You bet ... It totatly make's sence to me ... the coyote is more of an opprotunist than a true hunter ... follow the easy prey and scrounge up the easy picking's !!!
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Old 01-24-2017, 12:20 PM
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Widely debated over the past 10 years and only recently rejected as a full explanation, the expansion was attributed to the widespread killing/eradication of wolves and other large carnivores throughout North America. The removal of large carnivores is believed to have opened up a vast region of habitat for coyotes that was free from competition, while European settlements expanded north, providing ample alternative food sources for coyotes.


It sounds to me like killing of wolves and/or displacing them was only part of the explanation for their migration north. Coyotes are opportunists so I'm thinking that agricultural land development played a larger part.
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Old 01-24-2017, 12:56 PM
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Originally Posted by KegRiver View Post
They seem to be increasing in the province but I doubt they will ever be plentiful. I think our winters will keep their numbers low, and confined to the south.

Dad talked a lot about seeing Skunks in the Peace district when he moved here but not Raccoon.
He had learned trapping by trapping Raccoon in Nova Scotia when he was a kid but he often said he had never seen one west of Thunder Bay.

I saw them in Vancouver when I lived there in the early seventies. They were all over the place down there.
I hear reports of them here, some from family members but I've never seen one here or even a track of one.
hey Keg I cut my teeth trapping raccoons and rats/mink and fox in Nova Scotia,for 30+yrs til I moved here to work as a Meat Inspector
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Old 01-24-2017, 02:47 PM
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Widely debated over the past 10 years and only recently rejected as a full explanation, the expansion was attributed to the widespread killing/eradication of wolves and other large carnivores throughout North America. The removal of large carnivores is believed to have opened up a vast region of habitat for coyotes that was free from competition, while European settlements expanded north, providing ample alternative food sources for coyotes.


It sounds to me like killing of wolves and/or displacing them was only part of the explanation for their migration north. Coyotes are opportunists so I'm thinking that agricultural land development played a larger part.
I agree ... cruise around here in the peace country and I see way more in the radius of any cattle ranch or sheep farm than anywhere ... they thrive close to human's ... I'm a night owl and see coyote's regularly cruise through town when I'm having a smoke outside ... just like the beaver a person can trap and shoot them all you want ... they will never be extinct .
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Old 01-25-2017, 10:23 PM
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hey Keg I cut my teeth trapping raccoons and rats/mink and fox in Nova Scotia,for 30+yrs til I moved here to work as a Meat Inspector
Good stuff. My dad talked a lot about his home province.

He grew up in Margret's Cove, just down from Cape Spit I believe it's called.
He trapped the finger that stuck out into the bay.

His dad was a fisherman and sawmill owner. All dad wanted to do was trap and he couldn't take the ocean swells so fishing for a living was out.
He left home when he was 14 and headed west to join his brother on a trapline near Codotte Lake Alberta.

His brother returned to Nova Scotia to run the sawmill. Dad married a sheep herders daughter and went to trapping/homesteading and making babies.
They had no TV and only one radio station so they needed something to do at night.
I and my three brothers and twelve sisters were the result.

We were a proper hillbilly family.
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