Trapping & furbearers
Trapping is one of the oldest ways people have worked the land - a craft of reading sign, understanding animals, and setting cleanly and legally. Pick a furbearer below to see what it gives you, the sets and gear it takes, the season, and how it is caught. But start with the part that matters most: trapping only ever works when it is done legally, humanely and responsibly.
Read this before you set a single trap
Trapping is heavily regulated and carries a real duty of care: the right licence and tags, legal trap types and sets, daily checks, humane dispatch, and avoiding non-target catches like pets. Rules vary hugely by place and change often - and getting them right is what keeps trapping ethical and legal.
Trapping ethics & the law →💧 Water & Wetland
Beaver, muskrat, mink, otter and nutria - trapped along the water's edge with foothold and body-grip sets.
🦫 Advanced Beaver
The big prize of water trapping, taken at dams, lodges and channels with heavy…
🐀 Beginner Muskrat
The classic first furbearer for a new trapper - abundant in marshes and ditches, easy…
🐾 Intermediate Mink
A slim, restless water weasel with a fine, valuable pelt, trapped along stream banks…
🦦 Advanced River Otter
A large, powerful water weasel with a thick, durable and prized pelt, trapped at its…
🐀 Beginner Nutria
A large invasive marsh rodent that has done huge damage to southern wetlands, so…🦊 Foxes, Coyotes & Cats
Coyote, fox, bobcat and lynx - the wariest quarry, taken with dirt-hole and cubby sets and hard-won craft.
🐺 Advanced Coyote
The wariest, most challenging land furbearer for many trappers, and also a serious…
🦊 Intermediate Red Fox
A beautiful, valuable pelt and a classic dirt-hole quarry, the red fox works open…
🦊 Intermediate Gray Fox
The gray fox is the woodland cousin of the red, sticking to brush, thickets and rocky…
🦊 Advanced Arctic Fox
A northern specialist with a thick white winter coat, trapped on the tundra and coast…
🐈 Advanced Bobcat
A high-value, beautifully spotted pelt and one of the most sought furbearers, the…
🐈 Advanced Lynx
The lynx is a big-footed northern cat tied closely to the snowshoe hare, with a…🌲 Woodland & Mustelids
Raccoon, skunk, weasel, fisher, marten and more - the varied fur of the forest, farm and rocky country.
🦝 Beginner Raccoon
One of the most abundant and beginner-friendly furbearers, caught readily in dog-proof…
🐾 Beginner Opossum
North America's only marsupial and one of the easiest animals to catch - slow, unwary,…
🦨 Intermediate Striped Skunk
Caught mostly as nuisance control and for a modest pelt, the striped skunk is easy to…
🦨 Intermediate Spotted Skunk
The smaller, more agile cousin of the striped skunk, the spotted skunk is a lively,…
🦡 Advanced American Badger
A powerful digging predator of open prairie and grassland, the badger follows the…
🐾 Intermediate Long-tailed Weasel
A tiny, ferociously effective rodent hunter that turns white in winter in the north…
🐾 Intermediate Ermine (Short-tailed Weasel)
The short-tailed weasel, called ermine in its pure-white winter coat with the black…
🐾 Advanced Fisher
A large, powerful forest weasel with a dark, dense and valuable pelt, the fisher…
🐾 Intermediate American Marten
A small, agile tree weasel of mature conifer forest with a soft, luxurious pelt long…
🐾 Intermediate Ringtail
A shy, big-eyed relative of the raccoon with a long banded tail, the ringtail lives in…
🐾 Advanced