Do you need licenses and permits for trapping? If so, how old do you have to be before you can get one?

Melvin Garber, Versailles

A Missouri trapping permit is required to trap furbearers in Missouri. Because of the potential commercial return from trapping, people of all ages must purchase a permit to trap. There are no minimum or maximum age exemptions. The resident trapping permit costs $10. Last year, 2,045 Missourians purchased trapping permits. The number of trappers has been declining in Missouri, although an increase in fur prices will usually draw more people to the sport. The Missouri Trappers Association has an informative Website at <www.motrappers.topcities.com>. The National Trappers Association's Web address is <www.nationaltrappers.com/>.

When do foxes have their babies? And what does a fox do when an enemy tries to eat one of its kits?

Lauren Oster, 9, Joplin

Foxes have their babies in the spring. That's when there's plenty of good stuff for mother foxes to feed their babies, and the mild weather makes it easier for the kits to survive. Mother foxes hide their kits in well-concealed dens to make it harder for predators to find them. If necessary, a mother fox will defend her kits.

How many kinds of animals are in Missouri? Is there any rare one, like birds?

Lauren Thomas, 3rd grade, St. Louis

Missouri is home to more than 20,000 different kinds of animals living in the wild. This number includes about 70 mammals, like black bear and white-tailed deer, as well as about 173 nesting birds, 43 species of amphibians, 63 reptiles, about 200 fish, approximately 65 aquatic crustaceans, about 129 snails and mussels, an estimated 2,500 aquatic insects and an estimated 15,000 terrestrial insects and spiders. And, there may be thousands of microscopic animal species yet to be discovered in Missouri!

A number of animals have always been rare in Missouri, meaning that even under ideal conditions, their populations would always be small, and they would always live in only a few places in the state. However, more and more animals have become rare or endangered because their survival is threatened. In fact, 358 different animals-ranging from the bald cypress katydid to the cerulean warbler-are of concern to conservationists because their habitat has changed or has been destroyed. People cause most habitat changes and destruction by clearing land, channelizing rivers and polluting with chemicals and wastes.