Might sound like a stupid question to those that catch 100's of coyotes a year but for a guy that catches a fraction of that a year,had me wondering. When you find a dug up trap is is more likely a fox or coon or do coyotes have this natural instinct? Are fox more likely to do this over a coyote? I ask because a had a few dig ups last season and we are finally starting to get some fox so was wondering if that was the culprit?

Fox, coon, and skunks are more likely the culprit. Most of the time, the first sign of problems with a yote and he's gone.

I have had coyote's dig up old sets that the trap had been removed. Usually a very big hole getting after the old bait/lure. Makes you leave your sets in for a longer period of time.

pm

I think the small number of set diggers I have experienced each year over the years are both fox and coyote in equal numbers. One shouldn't get enough diggers to even concern themselves about if they are using clean and firmly bedded traps. There might be a very few canines that dig just because it is fresh dirt but generally speaking one's traps are either not clean and deoderized enough or have been contaminated with lure and bait odors to receive any number of diggers. Most everone likes strong smelling lures but I think one of the larger contributors is transporting the loud smelling lures and stinky baits right along side of one's clean traps. When a lure is so strong that the odor can't even be contained in the bottle it can't help but leave odor on traps being transported right next to them. Why else besides trap contamination would an animal waste his time digging at a trap when a wonderful smelling application of lure is just inches away? There are only a few truly educated coyotes/foxes that have had a bad experience with a trap, snapping dirt in thier face for example that might cause them to be wary and investigate before commiting to the lure/bait. Asa

...what he said!

I agree Asa!

i agree with asa on this, probably a bedding problem but yes a yote will dig.

i agree with asa also..

but i will add in my tiny bit of experience compared to his, fox seem to dig more. cant say that i know of a set that was dug by a yote. surely possible, but nearly always i see sign of a fox or coon, but either could have come by afterward/before and caused by the other and vice versa. i will add, that tracks aren't always identifiable either or can't be seen at all.

a poorly bedded trap will get a digger almost every time. regardless if its clean or not.

In a general statement, on my line foxes are diggers more than coyotes when they see a bit of something outta place. Coyotes more than fox tend to steer clear or stand back when all isn't quite right.

Asa, good point and another I have found is workin with a trapper on their line and opening the back of the rig and COON trappin smells (esp fish!) reeks to high heaven. Wonder if'in that gets on the canine traps?? Sure and digging can be a result.

This one was a digger.Third coyote at this location. Had three sets there.This trap and two others were dug up several days in a row and was the only set that hadn't connected.Traps were bedded in peat and were a little tippy. Put another trap at this set and he dug them both up. Moved them around a little and had him the next day.After that no more dug up traps.

All of them will dig with the right motivation. Fresh dirt means things to them we guess at but still don't know for sure.

The one in my avatar was a digger but made a fatal mis step finally. He was an old male. My guess would be he had been piched sometime. Still just a guess.

More times then not I believe my diggers are coon. Fresh dirt to a coon is an invite I believe they might be looking for a critter that turnned that dirt over for lunch.

Drifter

I think I caused my "digger" because I couldn't get a solid bedded trap or the peat. You know how it is chipping a trap bed out of frozen ground. Like concrete.The one in your avatar looks like an old one.Is he back foot caught?

When I encounter a digger I cover the pattern with urine taking his nose out of the picture. I also dig a new bed and move the trap back one bed width. I run right against the hole so I have plenty of room to move back. Most times he will be there the next night. I have more problems with coon and fox digging.

I have also found that crows will slip the wax paper out from over my pan. Don't know why they want the wax paper. I did remember two times last year hearing the crows flying around watching me make the sets just to come back the next day and found the trap un-covered. I have a pic of a crow caught by the head at a set with his beak touching still on the pan. I also had a video of a crow working the wax paper out and flying off. Both are non targets and can not be showing in public.

Every now and then I have had a coyote play with sets, digging out or exposing traps or trap coverings. When traps are placed back of traps these wise 'ol 'yotes dig out or expose them too. This happened way more often when I trapped bounty in the Summer months when pups were still running with thier Mother. I often suspected by the track evidence that Mother coyotes were exposing traps to teach remaining pups to beware of the danger of sets and scents. Otherwise one would assume a truly wised up coyote would avoid sets completely. That is not always the case though, many times when caught the digger proves to be missing paws or toes from previous trap encounters but yet still want to mess with sets. Here in Upper Michigan trapping is done primarily in miles on end of Lake Michigan and Lake Superior beach type sand or snow where tracks can easily be seen around sets to know for certain which animal species is the digger and how they reacted around sets. Asa

I had a big problem with this last year, mostly in the winter. I had at least 6 dug up on separate occasions. Each time was when it was very cold and the ground should be frozen, and I was using straight peat moss in bedding the traps. Could this be fixed or at least improve your odds if you mix your peat with half dirt? What kind sandy or more of a clay based or topsoil? What ratio? Also what about not just making sure your trap is in tight, but also loosening up the dirt around the hole set away from the trap to get the digging critter's focus off the trap itself? I didn't have any problems in the earlier part of the season when the ground was still thawed, although, I was NOT using peat at that point. Has anyone else noticed more digging in certain times of the year than others?

i cant see where a coyote or fox becomes a digger because the parent yote showed them a trap. associating danger with a smell maybe, but not an object in the ground.

they cant comprehend what a trap is, only associate it with danger, and thats only if it snagged them. just throwing dirt in their face wont create a danger to them, occasionally maybe if its a young or scared passive yote.

fresh dirt will attract canines, it creates a digging response on its own. here i have seen where armadillo dug for food, then a few days later the hole was dug even more by a canine. there wasn't food in the hole, just the dirt curiosity factor.

i would almost guarantee ya that digging is from 1 of 2 things, tippy trap or loose dirt.

in general a canine will be more focused on the hole and smells coming out or eye appeal, not a "faint" smell underground.

One would have to think when you have to chop a frozen trap bed and use peat or other materials to bed your trap that may be slightly unstable you would have the greatest amount of diggers. A little more work to get it right, but well worth it in the end.

Asa, caught one 2 years ago that was missing his right foot just above the pad. It was in a fox set where the trap was tight to the hole in a #1 1/2 duke. The only thing I could think of at the time was someone forgot a trap or never went back to get it and he finally escaped. Whoever caught him, it was a perfect pad catch had they went back for him.

Talking with pin owners here, they do not like and most times will not purchase a coyote taken in a steel trap due to the foot damage even when no external damage is visible. I am sure you have pelted animals with little to no foot damage while another’s are bloody to the knee under the skin with no external damage. I feel that we are sometime to quick to jump to the conclusion that someone left a trap out or did not check it when in fact the animal might have struggled enough to free himself with the damage already done. Pin owners tell me that feet don’t always heal and toes and pads have been lost on occasions, weeks after the catch was made. It has to do with the circulation being cut off.

Also I rather believe or state that maybe a drag did not hold or equipment failed in the anchoring of the trap instead of blaming it on the trapper, as we have enough of that already and don’t need to point fingers at one another. I also saw this last year and being the only trapper know to area of over 10 square miles, the only reasonable deduction was that the one trap lost the year before in the area was the reason for the lam coyote. The lost trap was due to an anchor failure. The cable broke on a super stake attached to 650. As smart as the coyote was, he stuck his good front foot in another 650. He must not have learned.

with Asa catching one with a paw missing and the belief it was due to a trap, helps prove that the coyote didnt "learn" that traps are dangerous, or even associated the hole, loose dirt with danger.

its hard to understand and we probably never will to a great extent what goes on in a coyotes mind and how it processes associations or thoughts.

it could be as simple and or as difficult as we want to make it, but it is their survival techniques, and they aren't the same region to region.

Interesting theories and expeiences.

We need to find Doctor Dolittle so he can ask the coyotes why they do what they do.