Furbearing combines craft, sport

By the time sunrise creeps over the horizon, Dan Eaton has been awake almost three hours.

• Photos

Back | Next

Back | Next

"This is my busiest time of year," he said, preparing for a 112-mile daily routine that takes him through thousands of acres in several counties.

Eaton, a contract trapper, is among a dwindling number of Georgians who take advantage of the state's furbearer season that runs from Dec. 1 through Feb. 15.

"It's like Christmas every morning," he said. "You get up early, you're excited and you never know what you're going to get."

Eaton traps on private land, where landowners and hunting clubs often pay to remove coyotes from deer and turkey habitat ñ or to thin beavers from damaged timber.

Other species commonly trapped include fox, bobcat and raccoon.

Eaton's first stop is near Hephzibah , where traps are scattered in a meandering path among 600 acres of treelines and harvested grainfields.

"Caught two coyotes in here yesterday," he said, bringing his truck to a halt. "Looks like a bobcat today."

Ahead, a stocky, male cat sat quietly, its front left paw gripped by the rubber-lined trap.

"Cats are easier than coyotes," Eaton said. "They're curious; they'll come in to the right smell."

The cat was dispatched with a.22 rimfire and loaded into the truck. Then it was time to re-bait and re-set.

"For this to work, everything has to be right," he explained.

The trap must be placed on a predator's travel route, which requires advance scouting for tracks and droppings. But that's just for starters.

It also must be artfully buried, with human scent masked or removed. The spring must be properly aligned amid mounds of dirt, twigs and other objects that steer the animal into the four-inch circle, where it will trip the trigger.

Wild animals, and predators in particular, have a keen sense of smell ñ and Eaton's trapping truck is stocked with a wide range of odors.

"This one's called ëCuriosity,' " he said. "Don't know what's in it, but it stinks."

Other aromatic lures and baits kept in his F-150 include coyote glands, beaver castor, Red Fox 100 ñ and an old commercial standby known under the trade name "Gusto." Its contents: skunk gland.

He even keeps assorted droppings sealed tightly in jars. "You never know what you'll need, or what might work," he said.

Trapping, Eaton said, is as much a craft as it is a sport. He first learned the techniques as a child 30 years ago from his uncles, who spent their lives trapping in southern Illinois and Kentucky.

As owner of CSRA Trapping in Augusta, most of Eaton's revenues come from suburban projects like evicting squirrels from attics and removing beaver from golf course and subdivision ponds.

But running traplines into deer and turkey territory are his first love, even if he does burn several tanks of gas each week.

"This is probably the only sport you can spend $100 on to make $50," he said.

Fur prices have fallen dramatically since the 1980s ñ and so have the number of trappers in Georgia.

"Coon fur is up a little this year, about $13 per pelt," he said. "A gray fox goes for $17. In the mid 1980s, a good bobcat would bring $200. Today it's about $55."

Georgia pelts are shipped to large fur houses ñ including the North American Fur Auction ñ in Canada, where buyers from around the globe converge at periodic sales.

Coyotes are a slightly different story. They can legally be sold ñ alive ñ to fox pens around the state, where hunters on horseback pursue them with hounds.

Eaton live-traps the coyotes and transports them to dealers in middle Georgia who re-sell them to fox hunting groups.

Although trapping was once a way of life, and its participants played major roles in exploring uncharted portions of the United States, today it has become more of a conservation and wildlife management tool.

"From our perspective, most of the trapping today is done from a recreational aspect," said Greg Waters, a senior wildlife biologist and coordinator of the Georgia Wildlife Resources Division's furbearer and trapping programs.

"It's not necessarily for money anymore," he said. "They're people who grew up trapping with their dad, and the tanning and fur is a lot of work. They won't get rich but it's something that can help pay for the gas and supplies."

Trappers in Georgia must have a special license, and sales of such permits have plummeted since the demand for fur fell in the 1970s and 1980s, Waters said.

"It reached its high in the late 1970s, when the fur market was very strong," he said. "We reached a point where we had 3,500 trapping licenses sold every year."

As the demand for fur dwindled, license sales fell to a low of 350 in 1994, he said. In the past decade, the figure increased slightly to about 500 last year.

"We have had a small increase, but about 20 percent of that 500 are for nuisance trapping, not really recreational."

Eaton is vice president of the Georgia Trappers Association, whose 300 members gather periodically to exchange ideas, techniques and products. "It's a way for us to keep in touch with one another," he said.

Trapping facts