Small predators like ermine, pine-marten and polecat much more common

[Buoidda]

I've trapped hundreds of birds, gluttons, hares, bears, seals, wolves and foxes during my experience with Urw. But the times I caught trapped one of the three in the subject: only very, very rarely.

I really feel these small predators should be much more commonly encountered and more easily trapped. In fact, more than any of the above.

I'd like to see trapping small predators a lot easier and harder to trap the valuable big predators. For realism and game balance. I'd reduce the value of big herbivore hides too.

Also I think it would be an idea worth considering if birds would be only possible to be trapped with loop snares. That way one could focus more on birds and hares or small predators.

Almost since the beginning of URW I've had one dream: to make myself a coat of self-caught pine-marten or ermine.  My current char has perfect eyesight and otherwise well rounded too. I'm trying to yet again become a small predator hunter but it really seems to be next to impossible. 

[raredragon]

i think they are more common when you encounter them while ur walking around with a dog instead of when you wait for them to come into your traps

[trowftd]

I agree with this, I think it can balance the trapping quite a bit. Mostly I am swimming in elk or reindeer hides if I set up half a tile trap line, catching mostly small animals would require you to invest a little bit more time to trapping and reduce it's passive power.

As far as big animal hides, I think if Sami makes them harder to catch with traps, their value right now would make better sense imo. Active hunting makes it a little bit tricky to get perfect hides all the time because of the damage you need to make in order to kill. If you think about it, a huge hide which you can make a full dress that keeps you warm is going to be pretty valuable especially in the north.

But overall I think this is a great adjustment to the game.

[JP_Finn]

Yes and no. 
In my years in the woods, I've encountered multitude of foxes, badgers, hares, (whitetail; which was introduced at Laukko Manor in 1934*) deer, roedeer, reindeer; which doesn't really count as semi-domesticated, and quite a few polecats.
I've not seen a glutton, nor bear (live in Finnish wilderness). I've seen two lynxes, less than handful of pine-martens.
Disclaimer: I've not been around since iron-age 

* my paternal great-grandmother was one of the milkmaids at Laukko Manor and my grandmother, then a teenager, hand fed the newly arrived animals. Until they decided to bail the jail.

[Erkka]

I don't know how common pine-marten or polecat were 1000 years ago. But I think that when it comes to the smallest predators like ermine, it might be that one doesn't see them so often. In wintertime you spot their tracks, but you seldom see the animal.

I'm thinking about this from the coding point of view. Like, if we continue to spawn animals like it is now, but just add a piece of code that when one comes to check small traps after X number of days, in addition to the normal simulation there could be some probability of catching ermine, even if that particular ermine wasn't spawned into the game world like lynx or elk. Something like that could yield the desired outcome - when walking in the woods you seldom see ermine, yet in your well-placed properly-baited small traps you could find ermine more often than in the current version of the game.

[Ara D.]

To the trapping of birds I like either trap working if you're going to nerf something make birds in flight impossible to trap. And you must consider the price per pound of fur, pine marten and the like is valuable it's just that it's oz vrs about ten pounds of reindeer fur

[Buoidda]

I tried to find some modern trapper statistics for reference but failed. Nevertheless, I imagine the small predator furs obtained by a skilled and dedicated trapper during trapping season to count at least in tens even for an iron age one.

I agree they shouldn't be encountered very often. Therefore I like Erkka's idea.

As a sidenote, I found this interesting 100-year-old book about trapping:
SCIENCE OF TRAPPING
DESCRIBES THE FUR BEARING ANIMALS,
THEIR NATURE, HABITS AND DISTRIBUTION,
WITH PRACTICAL METHODS
FOR THEIR CAPTURE.
By E. KREPS.
http://www.raems.com/articles/kreps/trap/trap.htm#C05