Regulated hunting and trapping provide many benefits to society, especially to maintain a balance between wildlife and people.
Trapping benefits people by:
Trapping benefits wildlife by:
Providing Products People Use Everyday
It is a mistaken belief that fur is the only part of the animal used by
society. Often, nearly the entire animal is used.
Most animals caught by Illinois fur hunters and trappers are sold to fur buyers.
Fur buyers prepare the fur for resale, market other parts of the animal, and
send the rest to animal by-products facilities.
Yes, people value fur
People for thousands of years have used fur for clothing. Today, fur remains
highly valued for garments and other items. In addition to its attractiveness,
fur has water-repellant qualities and provides excellent insulation.
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Everyday Americans wear fur.
Hunters and trappers often have furs made into hats, coats and blankets.
Photo by www.zenwaiter.com |
Furs are tanned, trimmed and sewn into garments, blankets and ornaments, and
dyed in colors and patterns. Furs are used in fishing lures, fine brushes and
other products. Some furs are shaved, and the hair processed into felt for hats
and clothing.
Furbearers as food
Hunters and trappers often eat the meat of some furbearers and other game,
just as others eat pork and beef. When prepared properly, the meat from raccoon,
beaver and opossum can make a great meal.
Learn how trapping is a way of life for some people.
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Trappers and hunters eat
furbearers such as raccoon, beaver and opossum.
Hunters here enjoy an outdoors meal.
Photo by D.J. Case and Associates |
Rendering: the invisible industry
Rendering is the process by which animal fat is processed into a
variety of products used everyday by people around the world.
Many animals that are trapped are made available to the rendering industry, where they are used to produce soap, livestock feed, paint, tires, ice cream,
textiles and construction materials.
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Many commonly used household items such as soap and paint are made
in part from animal products.
Photo by D.J. Case and Associates |
Reducing Overpopulation and Property Damage
When wild animals become too numerous, they can cause problems for humans, as
well as their own populations.
Wildlife overpopulation can lead to parasitism such as mange, as well as
diseases such as rabies and distemper. As more and more animals crowd
together, diseases often increase. Large die-offs due to disease are common
under these circumstances. Some
diseases and parasites, such as rabies and mange can affect people and pets.
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This fox suffers from mange, an
unsightly condition
caused by burrowing mange mites. Mange is contagious and spreads easily when
wildlife overpopulate. This disease can spread to domestic dogs and, on rare
occasions, even humans.
Photo by George Hubert |
Regulated hunting and trapping reduces threats to human and pet health and
safety by decreasing wildlife populations and exposure to diseases.
Hunting and trapping help maintain a balance between wildlife and people by
reducing or preventing expensive damage to agricultural crops, buildings and
other property. Regulated harvests help manage healthy wildlife populations.
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Beavers can devastate valuable
landscaping such as trees and shrubs. Their dams can cause flooding in crop
fields, across roadways and in neighborhood yards.
Photo by D.J. Case and Associates |
Benefits Rare and Endangered Species
Reintroducing species:
Wildlife biologists sometimes use foothold traps
(traps that capture an animal by the foot) to capture rare or endangered species
unharmed. These animals then are freed elsewhere to reestablish healthy wildlife
populations.
Such is the case for river otters in Illinois. As part of an extensive
reintroduction project in the 1990s, river otters were captured safely in
Louisiana, where numbers are plentiful, and released in Illinois, where
populations were scarce.
Today, otters abound
throughout the state.
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Illinois DNR was able to successfully restore river otter
populations using trapping methods commonly used by Illinois trappers.
Photo by Illinois DNR |
Protecting species:
Trapping is an important management tool to protect the health and
viability of many established or newly reestablished populations of rare or
endangered plant and animal species. Foothold traps are particularly
important management tools to protect rare and endangered species from
undesirable levels of predation by species like fox and coyote. (Note:
Types of traps vary depending on species that are being removed.)
Predators trapped during these operations are removed or relocated after
capture. Trapping may be carried out by federal or state wildlife biologists and
animal control agents, or by private, regulated trappers.
Greater prairie chickens are state endangered.
Photo by Saskatchewan Environment |
Trapping predators such as
opossums protects prairie chickens in Illinois.
Photo by Bob Gress |
In Illinois, the
following threatened or endangered species are protected through trapping:
- Forster's tern females (state endangered) and their eggs are protected
from predation by trapping raccoons, coyotes and other mammals that pose a
threat during the nesting season.
- Greater prairie chicken females (state endangered) and their eggs are
protected by trapping raccoons, striped skunks and opossums.
- Eastern prairie fringed orchids (state endangered and federally
threatened) are protected from flooding caused by beaver dams. Trapping
beavers eliminates animals that would build dams in areas where orchids
grow.
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