Ringtails and bears

A fellow blogger of mine and camera trap extraordinaire- Camera Trap Codger, put an excellent video capture on his blog.  He set up a camera hoping to capture ringtails on video near an area where he put down lures in the form of civetone (the musky pheromone from the African civet) and castoreum (exudate from the castor sacs of the North American beaver which is used by them for scent marking). He got one ringtail to bite, but what follows is some excellent video of a family of black bears also enjoying the lures. Check out Codgers blog here.

Camera Trap Setup Part 2

Well no luck.....the only thing I had was the rear end of a deer. But I'm not giving up so I setup my FurFindr and rebaited the site with another good dose of fox urine and beaver castoreum. The FurFindr is a really cool tool which produces short sound bites of four different animals: a bird, fox, rabbit, and a rodent. Each bite plays for 5 seconds and then repeats every 30 seconds. An electronic light sensitive eye located on the outside of the unit allows it to play only at night when predators are most active. They say a human can hear it 300 yards away, so a fox with its superior hearing should be able to hear it even further. The FurFindr should pull them in and then the lures should hold them there in front of the camera long enough to get some photos. I set it this time to the rabbit squeal to see what happens.
Afterwards I went exploring and came across what would be a perfect denning area. The entrance hole was underneath an old root and appeared to have been dug towards and underneath the stump from which it had originated. I wanted to set up a camera nearby, but it is right on the edge of a trail and would leave it exposed to anyone who walked past it. I've already had one camera pilfered so I'm at odds at what to do with such a perfect opportunity. I'm thinking about spreading out a smooth area of sand near the entrance to act as a "track trap" to see if anything is using it as a den.

Camera Trap Setup Part 1

The deed is done….I’ve finally got around to setting up a camera trap….let the games begin! The main reason for setting up this camera is to capture images of a gray fox. The gray fox, to me, is one of the most beautiful and fascinating animals I’ve ever come to know. My first encounter happened while hiking back in August 2006 in Roosevelt, TX. I had been hiking when all of a sudden I had that feeling that something was watching me. As I turned around there it was sitting in the middle of the road. What a sight! There’s no doubt they’re in this area due to all of the tracks and scat that I’ve come across.
In fact, not far from the area where I setup the camera trap I found muddied tracks of one that had crossed a wooden bridge that goes over a thin watercourse that originates from the creek. And unfortunately on my way up here I found one that was road-killed about five miles away. The spot I chose for the camera was about 60 yards off of the trail. I could see the paths of animals that had been traveling through this location from different angles. Also nearby was a log that had been used by a bobcat as a scratching post.
I did what Camera Trap Codger did and mounted two 2”x2” carpet squares to a log that was directly in front of the camera. I then saturated them with fox urine and beaver castoreum. The fox urine lure was so pungent it made my nose run, and the beaver castoreum lure, well to quote the Codger “So fine a scent! I jest not. Castoreum has a sweet tarry essence.” Not a bad smell considering it came from a beaver gland. I didn’t set up my FurFindr this time, but if nothing turns up when I come back in a week or so I’ll then add it to the mix. Wish me luck!

No Luck

I checked the game camera that I had set up about a week ago and found nothing but deer on it. I had hoped to pull in a predator, but no such luck. I know of another area that is deeper in the woods and I plan on setting it up there hopefully in the next couple of weeks. I also plan on trying some type of lure along with the FurFindr. The Camera Trap Codger seems to have quite a bit of luck using beaver castoreum so I plan on trying it myself. I know without a doubt that many predators lurk in the depths of the Big Thicket that surrounds our property so I plan to keep on keepin' on until they show their gnarly faces to my camera lens. Updates will follow so stay tuned!