Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Falconry Friday ! How to kill a weasel (pics)

assuming you can't use a shotgun, that is. good grief what a skunk rodeo !

So on the day we ran into all the creepy invertebrates





Dora managed to catch a long-tailed weasel (one of these hell demons)



which brings up three problems, really (four if you count having two $50 gauntlets essentially ruined on account of not being able to get the smell out of them -- and skunk is ode-to-joy compared to weasel, I'm just sayin')

1.) how do you kill the undead?
2.) Unintentional take procedures and reporting
3.) bite wounds to the foot - one of the most dangerous falconry injuries


With #1 rabbits and birds are pretty easy - cervical dislocation or chest compression will do the trick quickly. With a more tenacious critter it gets harder.

We've trained the birds that they've just got to hang on 'cause help is on the way and with something that's fighting back you're pretty much obligated to jump into the fray and help them kill it before any more damage is done.

Obviously a firearm isn't going to cut it, but (maybe less obviously) a blade can't be used either. Even if you could manage to get one into action without cutting or stabbing a bird, the birds will instinctively grab for a blood-covered blade and slice it's own toe tendon(s) -- a career ending injury, that. no blades on a kill, ever.

Instead, most of us carry a spike or pair of scissors -- you can stab into the chest with closed scissors so that even if they do grab it, hopefully damage will be minimal. The general consensus is pin the prey to the ground and leave the instrument in place.

**special note in case you ever try this yourself -- even pinning a weasel to the ground through both the heart and spine won't kill it.

On to number 2: unintentional take.

This will happen from time to time as most hawks don't read the fine print in the regs.

The "leave it lay" rule applies here. See, the birds expects to be able to feed now that it's killed and attempting to steal food from a hawk will ruin your relationship. Literally, that bird might never hunt for you again.

So .gov has allowed a compromise -- the bird can feed at the site of the kill, but the prey cannot be picked up or taken into possession.

Any incidental take also has to be reported state within 48 hours (Used to be only "species of special concern" but now it's any non-target or non-game species). Any endangered species has to be reported to the fed office in Denver as well as to the state. GPS coordinates and all that.

On to #3 - the aftermath.

Dora got bit up pretty good on her right foot but she was super-smart about it all, not panicking,sitting still and letting me do the work. Could have been much worse if she'd not have kept her head.

Tonks on the other hand, stood off. She took one look at the rodeo and thought "Uh-uh, that looks like one big cup of NOPE!"





The bites on the top aren't too bad, but she had two canine punctures right into the main pad on the bottom of her foot.

The worry here is the potential for an infection to progress into tendonitis or even osteomyelitis (aka bumblefoot). Bumblefoot is similar to laminitis in horses - once it starts, it often quickly becomes a death spiral. Additionally, birds have very poor circulation in their legs and feet and even minor injuries take forever to heal.

We cleaned the wounds right away, started both topical and oral antibiotics, bumped her weight up 20 grams, and sat on pins and needles for a few days.

By yesterday she still looked pretty good - no pain or swelling - and the longer she is heavy and not flying the more likely bumblefoot becomes. So we bit our collective lips and out we went:



[img]http://i183.photobucket.com/al...ry/20131003_105056_zps24f812eb.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i183.photobucket.com/al...ry/20131003_110400_zpsdfa548b1.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i183.photobucket.com/al...ry/20131003_105442_zps45a89d02.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i183.photobucket.com/al...ry/20131003_110459_zpsec192fa6.jpg[/img]

don't know if we're totally out of the woods yet, but all we can do is to keep on keeping on!

Neat as always. Great looking birds.

Excellent thread. Thanks for bringing us along through your pics and narration. Hope Dora continues to heal up well.

The other hawk is named Tonks? Is that a nod to Nymphadora Tonks from the Harry Potter series?

yep!

Very cool!!

Amazes me that a red-tail could kill a Weasel. I had it in my head that Weasel's were damn near invincible against all but a much larger carnivorous mammal.

Very nice again, matt.

Why bump her weight if that's a concern for bumblefoot?

nutrition=healing. right at hunting weight there's not much "extra". A (temporary) additional 10-20 grams can make a huge difference.

the trick is "temporary".

see



and




if the Zombie apocalypse ever does come, I'm pretty sure the Zombies will be modeled after weasels.....

I just click on this thread for the first time. Spent about 20 minutes going through your past ones on Falconry, Wow! Thanks for sharing all of this, very interesting stuff and the pictures and write up are top notch.

I'll be waiting each Friday now.

The long-tailed is a pretty big weasel for sure, but they are not immortal. Heart shots do work if you are certain of your scissor placement. But I would use the same thoracic compression.

I've handled a few and they do stink. Some things that might help with the smell are hydrogen peroxide, Woolite, direct sunshine (UV light).

Pretty cool birds and must have been a hell of a battle. I suppose much the same happens when owls take out house cats. I know of a reintroduction eagle owl that was nearly killed by a cat, but she had killed them before w/o a problem.

Cool birds you have.

Outstanding! I just love your posts on these birds.

Ed

Wow. Guess she's not going to hit a weasel again. Glad she's doing okay.

I never thought about your paperwork.

What happens when a bird on the list kills another animal on the list? You just get 30ccs of sodium pentabarb and a stern lecture never to be doing that again?

A long time ago I had the privilege of putting my dogs down for a friend, Bob Anderson, once was under a Gyr-Peregrine cross, the other times under straight Peregrines. The Gyr-Peregrine cross was huge and just flat astonishing on the wing behind a pheasant. I know the Feds came to visit him regularly back then and he was not fond of them or their paperwork. I can't imagine the problems with paper you could get into.

paper's big problem -- I'll probably do a whole essay on it sometime.

in this specific question, there is no penalty for your bird killing even an endangered species provided:

a) you didn't set up your hunt on or near a listed (and they are listed) breeding site for that species and

b) you file the proper report within 48 hours and include it in your end-of-the-year log submission.

Thanks, Matt. I kind of figured that was the reason, but wanted to hear it from a Doctor.

A friend of mine Dale Liner is a Master Falconer and used to work at Dolleywood at the Eagle show, he has Harris Hawks, several types of Falcons, Redtail Hawk, Bald Eagle and Golden Eagle. He uses homing pigeons to train his Falcons which is very impressive. Dale also rehabs injured Raptors for the TWRA when one is found and can be saved.
I have went with him on several hunts with the Harris Hawks and they are unbelievable...very social birds that hunt together.
The Golden Eagle is a whole different raptor, I have watched him toss chicken legs at it when feeding. The Eagle literally snatches the food out of mid air and then hovers over it before swallowing whole.
At one time he told me he would sponsor me and be his apprentice until I got my license but my love for guns and deer hunting won out, but not before I had ordered a apprentice kit and trap form Northwoods Falconry.

I don't know anything of falconry but it's a good thing weasels aren't any bigger than they are. God knew that one of these obsessive killing machines, say the size of a deer, would be a demon menace people would have to go out in armed squads for protection against.

Glad your bird did not suffer more damage. They--weasels--also have a tenacity for life and fight that's almost unreal.

Me too.