State of California Natural Resources Agency Department of Fish and Wildlife Wildlife and Fisheries Division Wildlife Branch LICENSED FUR TRAPPERS' AND DEALERS' REPORT 2017-18 Prepared by Matthew Meshriy September 2018 INTRODUCTION The Department of Fish and Wildlife has been gathering information on the number of furbearing mammals harvested, their value, and the number of licenses sold in California since 1919. Early reports of take were gathered by compiling data from a sample of licensed trappers. Since the 1952-53 season, each licensed trapper has been required to report his/her annual take of furbearing or non-game mammals for profit in order to purchase a trapping license for the following season. As of January 1, 1983, anyone applying for a new trapping license must first pass a test of trapping competence and proficiency before they may purchase the license. For 2017-2018 that license fee was: Resident: $114.00 Junior: $38.25 Nonresident: $571.50 Over the years, the take and monetary return to trappers for their furs has varied greatly. The number of licenses sold increased during the 1920’s to 5,243 in the 192728 season. Fur revenues were relatively high at that time as well. With the Depression and World War II, fur revenues and trapping license sales decreased dramatically. This decline continued until about 1970, when the fur value and take began to increase. The increase was rather dramatic over the next decade; the number of licensed trappers increased from less than 500 to more than 3,900, and the fur value increased from about $50,000 to almost $2,400,000. During the 1980s, the number of trapping licenses sold decreased from 3,021 to 834, and the take decreased from 131,491 to 21,046. License sales decreased by 42 percent in the 1998-99 season and 46 percent in the 1999-00 season after the passage of Proposition 4 on November 3, 1998. Passage of Proposition 4 eliminated the use of body-gripping traps for commercial purposes. After legislation was passed in 2002, beginning in 2003, persons who provided trapping services for profit (nuisance/pest control trappers) were also required to obtain a trapping license as has historically been required of commercial fur/recreational trappers. Therefore, the number sold in 2003-04 could be a combination of both groups. Beginning with the 2004-05 license year, this report only provides trapping data generated by commercial fur/recreational trappers. METHODS Section 467, Title 14, California Code of Regulations, requires that all licensed commercial fur/recreational trappers report their season’s harvest by the end of the trapping year (July 1). Since 2014, trappers have had the option to report their take electronically, utilizing CDFW’s Automated License Data System (ALDS) accessible online at: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/licensing/harvestreporting/. If the trapper’s annual report is not received by July 1, the trapper’s license will be suspended. On these reports, trappers note the number of each species of furbearing or non-game mammal taken for commercial or recreational purposes, the number of each species sold, the county of take for each species, and the dealers to 2017-2018 Licensed Fur Trappers’ And Dealers’ Report -1- whom the furs were sold. Trappers also have the option to report their “catch-per-unit-effort”, for taking individual furbearing and non-game species. The catch per unit effort (CPUE) for a target species, is equal to the number of individuals captured, divided by the total number of “trap-nights” (trap-nights = number of traps set * number of nights traps were set). This index of trapping effort is commonly standardized to reflect the catch per 100 trap-nights. Likewise, licensed fur dealers and their agents annually report their purchases of furs. The dealers are required (Section 4040, Fish and Game Code) to report the number of furs of each species taken in California that they bought and the average price paid per fur for each species. After the trappers’ and fur dealers’ reports are received by the Department, the data from these are compiled to determine the take for each species, the distribution of that take, and the variations in that take from previous years. These compilations of data are presented herein. RESULTS A total of 133 trapping licenses were sold during the 2017-18 trapping season, an increase of eleven percent from the 120 licenses sold in the 2016-17 season (Table 1). TABLE 1 Numbers of Fur Trappers Buying Licenses and Reporting Their Harvest 2014-2015 2015-2016 2016-2017 2017-2018 Licensees who reported successful trapping effort 125 51 52 68 Licensees who reported, but did not trap or were unsuccessful 120 132 66 58 Licensees not reporting 8 10 2 7 Total Commercial Fur/Recreational Trapping Licenses sold 253 193 120 133 Licensed trappers who do not send in their annual reports by July 1 (Table 1) will have their licenses suspended pursuant to Section 467, Title 14, California Code of Regulations. This year, seven licensed trappers failed to send in their annual report by the required due date. Estimated revenue received by trappers from the sale of furs during the 2017-18 season, based on average prices paid by fur buyers was $10,595 (Table 2). This is $10,055 more than the estimated revenue of $540 received during the 2016-2017 season. The average income per successful trapper increased from $10 in 2016-17 to $156 in 2017-18. The average income per successful trapper (beginning in 2009-10) is 2017-2018 Licensed Fur Trappers’ And Dealers’ Report -2- based on numbers of trappers who indicated trapping success during the current season. Average income in prior years was based upon total trapping licenses sold. Each year a portion of the fur harvest is reported as unsold. During the 2017-18 season, 21 percent was unsold, compared to 72 percent unsold during the 2016-17 season. Unsold pelts still have value and, for the purpose of this report, are considered to have the same monetary value as marketed pelts. In comparison to the 2016-17 trapping season, the harvest of fur-bearing and nongame mammals increased 215 percent in the 2017-18 season. More muskrats were taken during the 2017-18 season than any other species (Table 3). The 995 muskrats taken represented 63 percent of the total take. TABLE 2 Number of Animals Taken, Average Price Paid, & Revenue Received by Species 2016-2017 Species Badger Beaver Coyote Gray Fox Mink Muskrat Opossum Raccoon Spotted Skunk Striped Skunk Weasel Total Total 4 6 111 133 0 91 48 66 0 39 0 498 Harvest Unsold 4 0 82 123 0 0 48 62 0 39 0 358 Sold 0 6 29 10 0 91 0 4 0 0 0 140 Average Pelt $ NR $90.00 NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR Estimated Revenue (sold) NR $540.00 NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR $540 Estimated Fur Value (taken) NR $540.00 NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR $540 Estimated Revenue (sold) NR NR $3,796.00 $735.32 NR NR NR NR NR NR NR $4,531.32 Estimated Fur Value (taken) NR NR $8,614.00 $1,980.62 NR NR NR NR NR NR NR $10,594.62 2017-2018 Species Badger Beaver Coyote Gray Fox Mink Muskrat Opossum Raccoon Spotted Skunk Striped Skunk Weasel Total Total 2 6 118 167 3 995 63 111 9 94 0 1568 Harvest Unsold 2 6 66 105 3 0 33 71 9 32 0 327 Sold 0 0 52 62 0 995 30 40 0 62 0 1241 Average Pelt $ NR NR $73.00 $11.86 NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR = No Report 2017-2018 Licensed Fur Trappers’ And Dealers’ Report -3- TABLE 3 Trapping Take by County 2017-2018 County BA BE CO GF MI MU OP RA SP ST WE Butte 363 Colusa 86 Contra Costa 1 1 1 Fresno 10 68 2 Glenn 307 Humboldt 5 2 6 4 Inyo 5 Kern 4 1 35 46 61 Lassen 3 Los Angeles 43 3 5 Mendocino 20 10 Modoc 2 1 2 4 Mono Monterey Nevada Orange 11 4 1 Placer 2 14 2 12 22 9 Plumas 1 6 Riverside Sacramento San Benito San Bernardino San Luis Obispo 11 San Mateo 1 Santa Clara 1 Shasta 5 6 Siskiyou 61 14 47 Solano Sutter 1 192 Trinity 3 13 2 Tulare 2 Tuolumne 15 1 Ventura 2 6 Yuba Unknown Total 2 6 118 167 3 995 63 111 9 94 0 Percent 0% 0% 8% 11% 0% 63% 4% 7% 1% 6% 0% BA = Badger; BE = Beaver; CO = Coyote; GF = Gray Fox; MI = Mink; MU = Muskrat; OT = Other; OP = Opossum; RA = Raccoon; SP = Spotted Skunk; ST = Striped Skunk; WE = Weasel “0” reported for a species/county means that the county was actively trapped with no take for the season. 2017-2018 Licensed Fur Trappers’ And Dealers’ Report -4- Total 363 86 3 80 307 17 5 147 3 51 30 9 0 0 0 16 61 7 0 0 0 0 11 1 1 11 122 0 193 18 2 16 8 0 0 1568 100% While the reporting of CPUE to take individual species is not required by law, 91% of all licensed commercial fur/recreational trappers reported this information for the 2017-18 season. Catch per unit effort can be considered an indirect measure of the relative abundance for a given target species. However, CPUE is influenced not only by the intrinsic density of a target species’ local population, but also by extrinsic factors, including local variation in landscape characteristics, changes in trapping regulations, and the experience/skill level of individual trappers. Therefore, CPUE should only be considered a coarse measure of differences in relative abundance of a given species and location from one year to the next, or between locations within the same year. Reported capture rates during the 2017-18 season were highest for coyote (0.2806) and lowest for the American mink (0.0043, Table 4). While coyotes were reported to have the highest CPUE this season, most licensed trappers take coyotes by way of firearm rather than a trap. For this reason, CPUE is a less meaningful statistic for coyote than for other species. Muskrats had the second highest CPUE (0.2231) during the 2017-18 season. TABLE 4 Reported Trap Capture Rate (CPUE) By Species 2017-18 Species Trappers Reporting Badger, American Beaver, American Coyote Fox, Gray Mink, American Muskrat, Common Opossum, Virginia Raccoon Skunk, Striped Skunk, Western Spotted Weasel, Long-tailed 1 2 9 10 2 6 8 13 10 1 0 Reporting Total TrapTrapper Nights Take 2 6 55 167 3 995 63 88 84 9 0 30 34 196 3,937 696 4,460 10,315 10,393 13,005 96 0 Capture Rate (CPUE) 0.0667 0.1765 0.2806* 0.0424 0.0043 0.2231 0.0061 0.0085 0.0065 0.0938 NR Average CPUE 5-Year Average: CPUE 0.0031 0.0390 0.0137* 0.0177 0.0020 0.1496 0.0077 0.0103 0.0136 0.0297 0.0058 5-Year Average: Catch Per 100 TrapNights 0.308 3.896 1.375* 1.768 0.198 14.96 0.775 1.029 1.362 2.970 0.577 *The majority of coyotes taken by CDFW licensed trappers are not taken by way of a trap. Licensed fur dealers reported that no pelts were purchased in California (Table 5). The average prices paid by the reporting California dealers, in addition to sales reported by trappers (which may be out of state), are used to calculate the estimated fur revenue and value (Table 2) for each species. 2017-2018 Licensed Fur Trappers’ And Dealers’ Report -5- TABLE 5 Furs Purchased by Dealers 2017-2018 Number of Average Fur Furs Species Price Purchased Badger NR 0 Beaver NR 0 Coyote $73.00 0 Gray Fox $11.86 0 Mink NR 0 Muskrat NR 0 Opossum NR 0 Raccoon NR 0 Spotted Skunk NR 0 Striped Skunk NR 0 Weasel NR 0 Total 0 NR = No Report Total Spent $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 The 2017-18 season saw a increase in the number of commercial fur/recreational trapping licenses sold and a increase in the number of animals taken from 2016-17. 2017-2018 Licensed Fur Trappers’ And Dealers’ Report -6-