Nebraska has untapped potential for harvesting furbearers and coyotes throughout the state. It has long seasons and abundant opportunities to make great memories outdoors.

Furbearing animals are common in Nebraska, and most are found statewide. Regulated harvest of these mammals provides an excellent outdoor opportunity and is an important management tool to reduce problems they can cause people and property.

There are other reasons to trap or hunt furbearers this fall.

Here are just a few:

Expand your wildlife knowledge and accept the challenge — When trapping furbearers, take up the challenge of learning a critter so well you can get it to step on the exact spot you set your trap.

More time outdoors — Extend your time in the woods beyond deer season. Once you’ve harvested your deer or bagged your turkey, pursuing furbearers provides additional opportunities to be outdoors setting and checking traps.

Opportunity and access — There are many private landowners wanting to reduce the furbearer population on their property. By helping these landowners, a fur harvester also could gain access to hunt other game on their property.

Hunting and trapping seasons typically are designed to allow furbearer harvest during the fall and winter, when the pelts are prime. This gives hunters an opportunity to earn extra income, play a role in wildlife management and enjoy time outdoors.

Nebraska has three furbearers that may only be trapped – muskrats, beavers and river otters. Raccoons and opossums have an early hunting-only season. Those two species, along with bobcats, badgers, mink, long-tailed weasels, red fox, gray fox and striped skunks, also have seasons where they may be hunted or trapped.

Hunting and trapping are permitted statewide, except where closed by federal, state or local laws or regulations. Hunters and trappers must get permission before hunting or trapping on private land that is not part of a public access program.

River otters have a season bag limit of one for each harvester with no overall limit. For other furbearers, there is no bag limit for Nebraska residents.

For residents ages 16 and older, a fur harvest permit and habitat stamp are required to hunt or trap furbearers in Nebraska; no permit is needed for residents to harvest coyotes.

Residents may buy fur harvest permits at OutdoorNebraska.gov, but nonresident permits only may be purchased at Nebraska Game and Parks’ Lincoln office. Call 402-471-5457.

Find more information on furbearer hunting and trapping in the Nebraska Small Game and Waterfowl Guide. It is available wherever permits are sold or online at OutdoorNebraska.gov. Search for “Guides.”

The 2026-2027 Nebraska furbearer seasons are:

Trapping

Muskrat and beaver – Nov. 1, 2026-March 31, 2027

River otter – Nov. 1, 2026-Feb. 28, 2027

Hunting

Raccoon, Virginia opossum – Sept. 1-Oct. 31, 2026

Hunting and trapping

Badger, mink, long-tailed weasel, raccoon, Virginia opossum, red fox, gray fox – Nov. 1, 2026-Feb. 28, 2027

Bobcat – Dec. 1, 2026-Feb. 28, 2027

Striped skunk – year-round

Coyote – year-round

Make the Most of Nebraska’s Fur Harvesting Opportunities – The Outdoor Wire | The Outdoor Wire

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Upcoming trapper and wolf trapper education courses in Salmon | Idaho Fish and Game

Tuesday, October 13, 2026 – 2:22 PM MDT

Interested in trapping? Trapper and wolf trapper education courses will be held in Salmon this November. Register now to reserve your spot.

Not sure which courses you need? Idaho Fish and Game has got the answers to your questions.

Trapper Education Course

Trapper education covers trapping laws, safety, ethics, basic trapping methods and ways to avoid non-target catches. Already an experienced trapper? You may still need the class. As of July 2018, Idaho requires anyone who has not purchased a trapping license before July 2011 to complete a mandatory trapper education course.

The next opportunity to take a trapper education course in Salmon.

• Saturday, Nov. 14, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Idaho Fish & Game Office, 99 Highway 93 North, Course fee: $8.

Please note this course will not allow a trapper to immediately begin trapping wolves. Anyone intending to trap wolves must attend a wolf trapper education class prior to purchasing wolf trapping tags. Therefore, anyone intending to trap wolves that did not hold an Idaho trapping license prior to July 2011 is required to take both trapper and wolf-trapper education.

Wolf Trapper Education Course

This course is taught by certified wolf-trapping instructors who travel throughout Idaho to provide the one-day course. Wolf trapper education covers wolf trapping regulations, ethics and trapping methods.

The next opportunity to take a wolf trapper education course in Salmon.

• Saturday, Nov. 21, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Idaho Fish & Game Office, 99 Highway 93 North, Course fee: $8.

Anyone intending to trap wolves that did not hold an Idaho trapping license prior to 2011 is required to take both trapper and wolf-trapper education.

Preregistration is required. Register online on the IDFG website, https://idfg.idaho.gov/hunt/education.

For more information, contact the Salmon Regional Office at (208) 756-2271.

Here’s how to help birds of prey

October 14, 2026

Hunting near Zion during the 2026 hunts?

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The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and The Peregrine Fund are once again asking big game hunters in the Zion hunting unit to stop at a check station this month, where they can demonstrate their efforts to help protect scavenging wildlife — like eagles, hawks and California condors — and also enter to win a prize, according to a statement from DWR.

During October, the DWR will operate check stations where hunters who take action to help scavenging wildlife can enter to win an $800 gift card donated by The Peregrine Fund for outdoor equipment. While at the check station, big game hunters can enter the drawing by taking either of the following steps:

Showing the lead-free ammunition they are using during their hunt or providing proof they removed all the remains (including gut piles) of their harvested animals from the field.

The check station will be located at the intersection of Yellowjacket Road and Hancock Road, approximately 3.25 miles north of the entrance to Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. It will be open from 9 a.m. to dusk on the following dates: Oct. 7, Oct. 10-11, Oct. 17-19, and Oct. 24-25.

Zion unit hunters who are unable to visit the check station have another way to enter the prize drawing. They can bring their lead-free ammunition or animal remains to the DWR’s Cedar City Office during its open hours (8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday–Friday).

“The Hunters Helping Condors program launched in Utah in 2011 to help recover California condors,” DWR Southern Region Conservation Biologist Danielle Finlayson said. “These unique, enormous birds were listed under the precursor to the Endangered Species Act in 1967, and by 1982, only 23 were left in the world (one of which was in captivity). Due to the steep decline of the population, the remaining wild condors were captured and held in captivity for safekeeping, which gave rise to a successful captive breeding program that has allowed for the reintroduction of the endangered birds back to the wild.”

The California condor population now numbers more than 500 birds, with over half of those flying free in the wild. There are currently 95 condors in the wild Arizona/Utah population.

Like other raptor species, including eagles and hawks, California condors play an important role in the ecosystem by removing dead animals from the landscape. Condors are obligate scavengers, meaning they feed exclusively on dead animals. Unfortunately, this leaves these birds particularly susceptible to the effects of lead poisoning, which results from consuming the remains of animals shot with lead ammunition.

“The Hunters Helping Condors collaborative effort demonstrates one of the ways that hunters are at the forefront of wildlife conservation,” Finlayson said. “Lead poisoning is the leading cause of death for free-flying condors in Utah and Arizona. We are very grateful for all the hunters who are taking steps to prevent secondary impacts to scavenging wildlife, including eagles and California condors.”

As part of the program, prior to each hunting season, the DWR also issues a coupon to hunters who draw an any-legal-weapon big game permit for the Zion Unit in southern Utah, where California condors can be found. That coupon allows the hunters to obtain free, or heavily discounted, lead-free ammunition.

Due to an increase in California condor activity in the Panguitch area, the DWR is also encouraging hunters with permits for the Panguitch Lake unit to either use lead-free ammunition or to pack out and dispose of their big game gut piles where birds can’t access them.

Learn more about lead-free ammunition and how to help birds of prey on the DWR Wild podcast.