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Looking for a Good Excuse to Get Outdoors? You Might Try Chasing Weasels
LAKE MILLS - Iowa outdoor enthusiasts are always looking for a good excuse to get outside --- even when it happens to be the dead of winter. There are plenty of recreational options. Traditional pastimes include ice fishing, cross country skiing, local photo safaris, or end of the season pheasant and deer hunts. Some endeavors become a bit more exotic. Take Brad Mohr, for example. Whenever this outdoorsman feels the urge to tromp through a wonderland of knee deep snow, he heads for the nearest public wetland and tries to catch some weasels. Measuring less than a foot in length, the weasel is Iowa's smallest furbearer. But don't let the size deceive you. Whatever the creature may lack in heft is easily outweighed by its aggressive and savage nature. A voracious killer with an insatiable lust for blood, the weasel is one of the few predators that kills for the sheer joy of it, frequently taking more prey than it can possibly consume. Area farmers can still recall the horror of opening the door of the chicken coop and discovering the entire flock slaughtered and neatly stacked into a corner of the building. Even more infuriating was the fact that, in many cases, not a single bite of meat had been eaten. "A lot of people still remember weasels coming into farm buildings and killing their chickens," says Mohr. "But most farms don't have poultry any more and it seems as if a lot of folks have forgotten weasels. When I tell people that I'm trying to trap weasels or that I just caught one, some of them don't even know what I'm talking about. I think most people would really be amazed if they knew how large the [weasel] populations are." Although chicken may no longer be a regular weasel menu item, the species remains a mighty hunter, consuming up to a third of its total body weight in meat each day. Although white-footed mice are a staple, weasels may also display remarkable courage and aggression by attacking and consuming "giant" prey items such as ring-necked pheasants or cotton-tailed rabbits. During the summer nesting season, weasels may also kill an increased number of birds. On a north Iowa study plot, DNR researchers discovered what were assumed to be entire broods of uneaten pheasant chicks killed and cached by resident weasels.
Weasels are 100 percent predators and the best places to find the carnivores are around marshes and willow batts where prey is abundant, says Mohr. Weasels generally like to run the edges of these habitats where they sometimes establish a regular circuit while hunting for mice and other prey. Taking advantage of the species' extreme curiosity, Mohr crafts handmade cedar boxes to entice his quarry. Baited with chunks of muskrat or beaver, the foot-long boxes prove irresistible. When a weasel attempts to enter the box and steal the meat, the predator trips the pan of a large snap-type, rat trap. The set is virtually foolproof and death is instantaneous. "I don't try to hide my sets and usually place trap boxes right out in the open. Weasels are so curious --- they're just the opposite of animals [like fox or coyotes] that become 'trap shy'," notes Mohr. "If a hunting weasel notices something that wasn't there the last time he came by, then he's very likely to come over for a look." "Sometimes I look for tracks and will make a set there," says Mohr. "But mostly I just find a good edge and -- tracks or not -- will place a box there. Weasels are so abundant that in good habitat they'll find you before you find them." The best time to catch a weasel, says Mohr, is whenever a winter storm system moves into the area. A good example occurred last winter when Mohr caught a single weasel the day before a snowstorm was scheduled to move into the state. When the storm arrived several hours later, he immediately bagged six. "If I catch two or three weasels in the same spot, I'll generally pull the boxes and move to a new marsh," says Mohr. "I don't know if it really makes a difference; I just like the idea of leaving some seed for next year."
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