So, how are you at reading animal tracks and hard-nose bargaining?


The neat thing about the Trapping Game is that it involves a lot more than simply catching animals.

First of all, you need to understand animal behaviour, learn how to read animal tracks, and figure out which traps are suitable for which type of animal.

Here I’m triumphantly collecting a rabbit!


Then once you’ve got your furs, you need to negotiate the price of your pelts with the factor at the Hudson’s Bay Company trading post.

That means that not only do you need to have some pretty sharp negotiating skills, but you also need to know what’s a fair price for the different type of furs.

Here I am in deep negotiations:




Oh yes, you also have to do all this while avoiding being mauled by hungry wolverines, falling into freezing water, or starving in the frozen wilderness!

As you can see, I failed to avoid the freezing water!



We wanted the Trapping Game to be entertaining, but we also wanted it to express the cultural significance of ndoho (the Cree word for hunting, fishing, and trapping in the bush); we wanted to explore the First People’s reciprocal relationship with the land and animals.

If you’re a teacher, the Trapping Game provides a great opportunity to talk about the historical relationship between the First Peoples and the Hudson's Bay Company.You can find detailed lesson plans in our Teachers’ Guides.

Good luck trapping! We'd love to hear about your adventures!

(And hopefully you’ll have better success at avoiding the wolverine than I did!)