Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jan 25/02) - "Which animal drags its claws across the ground?" asks Eileen Erasmus.

"Wolf!" the children cry back before the snowmobiles roar back to life, and the caravan continues on its way back to Ndilo.

Erasmus teaches at K'alemi Dene school. Last week the students were learning about life on the land and the animals that live on it.

Erasmus's husband Guy, a resource development officer with Renewable Resources, Wildlife, and Economic Development, and George Tatsiechele, began taking the children Jan. 10 across Yellowknife Bay to check snares and quick-kill traps for rabbits, marten and mink.

The afternoon quest on Jan. 14 turned up two marten -- the best haul yet, says Guy. A good marten pelt goes for $70 through the Genuine Mackenzie Valley Fur Pricing programming.

"One significance of this is that there's been a ban on leg-hold traps, and now we're using new live traps that kill right away," says Guy.

"The old timers are reluctant to use these traps... It's like changing the metric system, but these kids don't even know what an inch is."

Even if students choose not to trap some day, says Guy, it's important they know at least what they are when they see one.

They are designed to kill a small animal quickly. But if a young child were to reach for one it could result in a painful and serious injury.

To drive the point home, Guy asks a student to take a stick and push it into one of the quick-kill traps designed for marten or mink.

After a few tentative tries, the trap suddenly clamps down hard on the stick, causing the surprised child to leap back quickly. The rest of the children can't help but laugh.

Every so often along the trail, Erasmus and Tatsiechele stop to point out where a rabbit snare was set, a quick-kill trap stashed in a tree, or some animal tracks.

The tracks seemed to be everywhere and anywhere, but the pair had little difficulty in discerning which animal made them.

They warned the children to stay on the trail, otherwise the animals might grow wary of their presence.

"This is just a demonstration trapline, we don't trap around here," says Guy.