But the porcupine, a fat rodent weighing 15 to 18 pounds, is far and away the most important animal for survival in fact, backwoodsmen avoid killing it for this very reason. Porcupines are easy to catch since they don’t run away but instead just roll up into a spiny ball or threaten with their quilled tails watch out, they have a range of about six feet! But a good knock with a stick will do the job. And porcupine meat can be eaten raw.
Above: In the north, animals are so unused to traps that there is hardly any need to camouflage them.
Above: Stockade trap. When a lynx grabs the boit, the closing mechanism is triggered.
Left: A snare for hare, with a sprung bough to lift the game out of reoch of nonhuman predators.
In country where rabbits are plentiful, you can catch them by putting snares along a run. In winter, the runs are easy to find. In the summer, it can be more complicated, but a good place to look for rabbit trails is in the dense growth of alders and willows by a stream.
