Badgers basically remain prime in their holes until the emerge, thus if they only surface April 10, they will still be prime. Once they emerge, they begin to lose prime if it is late, or it is time, and will lose it quickly. My guess is they remain prime due to lack of melatonin change in their bodies as a result of zero sunshine/daylight from their long winter sleep. Nothing quite like a 3XL white snowball badger at the peak of its prime! The trapping season ends too early, March 31 is too early, should be April 30, or at least April 21, or 15.
When you find early winter badgers that youd like to take but arent prime yet, you can ensure they will stick around by feeding them a couple carcasses, or a barrel of meat scraps, which they will promptly take down their hole and settle in.
Badgers are an animal that can definitely be taken humanely in steel foot traps. This is currently illegal in Alberta. Do your part and lobby the FIC to test steel foot traps on badger, and your association and government to have badger trapping in live holding devices legalized.
Nothing quite like a nasty little badger in a foot trap! Dont just shoot them, pet them first! Not the most fun animal to release!!! A prairie trapper’s delight til it’s time to put up!
Also beware of the treehugger biologist, or perhaps niaive. There are such people running around pretending that badgers are virtually endangered, thus what they deem the “American Badger” needs special management protections??? What a bunch of crap, possibly in BC where they are out of their range, but certainly not in their range. The badger population in AB SK MT ND SD etc is robust, they are a cyclic species and I believe poorly understood.
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