Money isn’t the main motive why anyone sets a trap.
Trappers run lines out of a love for the sport, first and foremost. After all, when it comes to outdoor pursuits, nothing is as unique, and challenging, as trying to convince a wary red fox or coyote to step directly onto a trap pan.
Still, for all the reasons we love to trap, money does matter, to a degree. Fur prices motivate more people to run traplines, and it dictates just how much effort a trapper will commit to the season.
When prices are low, trappers may not be as inclined to set a lot of traps or walk for miles checking lines. Those who trap during a depressed fur market are doing it just for fun.
Right now the fur market has bottomed out for many furbearers. Take a look at the auction results posted by various districts of the Pennsylvania Trappers Association and you’ll see what I mean.
The District 7 auction on Jan. 10 in Washington saw a decent return for muskrat – $3.35/average – but other than that prices were pretty disappointing. Raccoon averaged $2.25, red fox – $3.48, mink – $3.84 and coyote brought $7.25.
A sale on Jan. 9 by District 11 showed a surprising average of $30.38 for coyotes, but flat averages of $1.21 for raccoon, $3.57 for mink and $4.75 for red fox.
There will be more fur auctions by other districts later this winter, but I’d be surprised if there was a drastic turnaround in prices.
But auction prices aren’t low just in Pennsylvania – it’s happening everywhere.
Fur Harvesters Auction in Ontario – the only large auction house remaining in the industry – conducted its most recent sale last September, and mink, raccoon, red fox and grey fox remained largely unsold.
That didn’t bode well for this season, considering there were 182,656 raccooon offered at the FHA auction, 23,602 red fox and 30,615 mink. That’s a lot of fur to carry over to the 2020-2021 trapping season.
What it essentially means is the market for those species is flooded, and as long as that’s the case, prices won’t improve very much.
So what can be done about low fur prices?
Well, some factors are out of our control. COVID-19 struck at the worst time for the fur industry because international buyers are crucial to the FHA auction. With the pandemic restricting travel in March, some buyers couldn’t make it to Canada, which impacted FHA’s ability to hold an auction.
In addition, the markets in China and Russia, for example, influences demand for furs, but that’s beyond our control.
However, since there is a large carryover in fox, raccoon, mink and other species on the fur market, perhaps trappers would benefit by restricting what they harvest.
Trappers can take matters into their own hands by not targeting certain species, releasing fox and raccoon from their traps or even exploring other markets.
Taxidermists are sometimes eager to buy carcasses, and the price they can pay isn’t dictated by the fur market.
Lastly, if freezer space isn’t an issue, hold onto furs and wait things out. Give the fur market time to straighten out and hope that the surplus of pelts eventually sells. Sure, it’s a risk, but with $2 raccoon and $3 fox, it really isn’t much of a gamble to wait.
There is a caveat to the entire situation in that furbearer trapping seasons aren’t necessarily designed to supply product to the international market. Furbearer seasons are established as a means of managing populations and maintaining a balance between wildlife and habitat. And, especially with raccoon, seasons are designed to reduce human conflicts and nuisance complaints.
When it comes to raccoons, for example, there is no better management tool than hunting and trapping. It controls populations, disease, predation and the occurrences of raccoons marauding through a neighborhood on garbage night tearing trash bags to shreds.
Still, if fur prices drive trapping activity, then it also influences wildlife management.
By letting the current surplus dwindle and ultimately drive up demand, the hope is that prices and trapping activity would reflect the trend.
And if that happens, trappers may feel a little better about their fur check, and furbearer populations can be kept in check as well.
- This story originally appeared in PA Outdoor News.
