Nebraskaland

NEBRASKAland December 2014

NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.

Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/417216

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T wo Nebraskans learned the hard way last winter why it is illegal to set traps on exposed bait. They were both lucky that the bald eagles they unintentionally caught lived to fly again. While bald eagles and other birds of prey such as hawks and falcons are adept hunters, they are not opposed to taking a free meal when given the chance. Their keen eyesight allows them to easily spot a dead rabbit or deer on the ground below. Terrestrial predators such as coyotes and bobcats also take advantage of an easy meal, using their keen sense of smell to home in on dead animals. Trappers once commonly took advantage of the latter and set traps around carcasses, hoping to catch an unsuspecting coyote as it walked in for a bite. But because of the possibility of an aerial predator stopping by, the practice was banned long ago, and traps can't be set within 30 feet of exposed bait. As is the case with any law, game or otherwise, they aren't always followed. Twelve-year old Grant Jensen of Gothenburg had been trapping for two years and didn't know about the law when he set a trap on a rabbit carcass in a center pivot track on his family farm during Christmas break last year. The home- schooled sixth grader enjoys trying to outsmart the animals, checks his trap line daily, sometimes even at lunchtime, and was hoping to catch a coyote that had been using the nearby fence crossing. He wasn't sure what he'd caught as he approached, but remembered thinking "whoops" when he saw the bird with the unmistakable white head. "I was really nervous and scared when I saw that it was an eagle," Grant said. "I thought I'd have a big fine or have to go to jail." Grant's mother, Karla, was equally worried. "We knew this was a federal offense," she said. Two Trappers, Two Eagles, One Lesson By Eric Fowler and Julie Geiser An immature bald eagle drawn to a deer carcass on land near the Platte River southwest of Elm Creek found itself caught in one of the traps illegally set out by a trapper hoping to catch furbearers. 36 NEBRASKAland • DECEMBER 2014 PHOTO BY NIC FRYDA Eagles caught in traps last winter illustrate why law prohibits setting traps on visible bait.

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