Animal trapping
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The human activity of animal trapping has two separate but related meanings. Firstly, it describes the hunting of animals to obtain their furs, which are then used for clothes and other articles, or sold / bartered (see fur trade). Secondly, trapping relates to the use of traps to catch animals for a variety of other purposes, most usually for food or pest control.
Trapping other animals for food is also practiced by some animals and a few plants. For example, the funnel-web spiders and the Venus flytrap trap their prey.
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[edit] History
Animal trapping is perhaps one of the first methods of hunting. 200,000 years ago, in the Lower Paleolithic period, traps were used by central European people to hunt mammoths.[citation needed] A passage from the self-titled book by Taoist philosopher Zhuangzi describes Chinese methods used for trapping animals during the 4th century BCE. The Zhuangzi reads, "The sleek-furred fox and the elegantly spotted leopard...can’t seem to escape the disaster of nets and traps.”[1][2] "Modern" Steel jaw-traps were first described in western sources as early as the late 16th century.[3] The first mention comes from Leonard Mascall's book on animal trapping.[4] It reads, "[sic] a griping trappe made all of yrne, the lowest barre, and the ring or hoope with two clickets.[sic]"[5] The mouse trap, with a strong spring mounted on a wooden base, was patented in 1910 by James Henry Atkinson, a trap maker from Leeds, England.
Trapping was widely used in the early days of North American settlements (such as the Canadian Fur Brigade). Native Americans trapped fur bearing animals with pits, dead falls, and rudimentary snares. A dead fall is a heavy rock or log that is tilted on an angle and held up with branches, one of them that serves as a trigger. When the animal moves the trigger which may have bait on, or near it, the rock or log falls, crushing the animal. The four figure dead fall is a popular and simple trap constructed from materials from the bush.
After contact was made between Europeans and Native Americans, a new era of European exploration and exploitation was born. European trappers were the first whites to travel across the plains and into the Rocky Mountains in search of fur. While some trappers roamed out of personal curiosity, the monarchs and trading companies of Europe invested heavily into voyages of exploration. The race was on to establish trading posts with the natives of North America, as trading posts could also function as forts and legitimize territorial claims.
The white trappers used steel leg hold traps as well as snares and dead falls. Beaver was one of the main animals of interest to the trappers as the fur wore well in coats and hats. Beaver hats became popular in the early 1800s but towards the end of the century beaver became scarce in many areas and extirpated in others. The decline in key species of fur-bearers, due to over-harvesting, and the later emergence of the first regulatory laws marked the end of the heyday of unregulated trapping. Many trappers turned to buffalo hunting, serving as scouts for the army or leading wagon trains to California and other parts of the west.
[edit] Use of traps
Trapping requires more time and energy than most other hunting methods but can be very efficient. For this reason, trapping is safer and less expensive for the hunter, but in modern times it has become controversial for its alleged cruelty.
Trapping is regularly used for pest control most commonly beaver, coyote, raccoon, cougar, bobcat, Virginia opossum and fox in order to limit damage to farming, ranching, and property. Federal authorities in the United States use trapping as the primary means to control predators that prey on endangered species such as the San Joaquin kit fox (Vulpes macrotis mutica), California least tern (Sterna antillarum browni) and desert tortoise (Xerobates agassizii). [1] It is used to reduce numbers of predators in order to increase the populations of quarry species for hunting. It can also be used to control over-population or control diseases such as rabies, mange, and tularemia. Trapping is also used for research and relocation of wildlife. [2]
[edit] Traps
Today most of the traps used can be easily divided into five types: body gripping traps, snares, foothold traps, cages and glue traps.
[edit] Body gripping/conibear traps
The body gripping traps are traps made to kill the animal caught in minutes or less. They are frequently called "Conibear" traps after Frank Conibear from Canada who first came up with this type of trap, but even a simple mousetrap is one. The animal must be lured with a bait or guided into the correct position before the trap is triggered. The trap is usually built to strike at the back of the neck or behind the shoulders of the targeted animal and dislocate the spine. Humane organizations criticize the trap for causing prolonged death, however research has shown that when properly operated, they are considered one of the more humane methods of trapping. [3]
[edit] Snares
Snares are anchored cable nooses set to catch wild animals such as foxes, rabbits and coyotes. They are also widely used by subsistence and commercial hunters for bushmeat consumption and trade in African forest regions.[4]
Snares are one of the simplest and are claimed to be one of the most effective traps. Made of galvanized aircraft cable, they are cheap to produce and easy to set in large numbers. A snare traps an animal around the neck or the body and tightens around the animal, restraining it. They are widely criticised by animal welfare groups for their alleged cruelty.[5] UK users of snares accept that over 40% of animals caught in some environments will be non-target animals.[6] While in the USA non-target catches reported by users of snares in Michigan are just over 10%. [7] Some scientists believe that in animals which are trapped, pressure necrosis may have caused hidden injury to the animal, and that trapped animals should be taken to a vet rather than released.[8] However, modifications and regulations now provide working snares that have relaxing locks that do not cinch down, break-away locks that open up after 250 pounds of pressure are exacted (allowing large dogs, calves and deer to remain unharmed), deer stops which prevent the snare from closing down so far as to catch a deer's leg, and live-catch stops that prevent the snare from closing to a point that chokes an animal of a certain size. Powered snares use the option of a spring to deposit the snare on an animal's leg or neck through the triggering of a spring mechanism.
[edit] Legality
Snares are illegal in much of Europe. In other jurisdictions, they are regulated. For example, in Iowa, snares have to have a 'deer stop' which stops a snare from closing all the way. In the United Kingdom, snares must be 'free-running' so that they can relax once an animal stops pulling, thereby allowing the trapper to decide whether to harvest the animal or release it. The Scottish Executive is currently considering responses to its consultation on options to ban or regulate the use of snares.[9]
[edit] Foothold traps or leghold traps
Modern trappers have found that steel traps with thick smooth jaws are as effective and most modern traps have a gap called an "offset jaw" or a padded jaw that reduces the chance of injury to the animal. The belief an animal will chew off their own foot to escape a trap is erroneous. Older traps came in a single size. This large size was designed for the large back feet of beaver. Since manufactured traps were limited, trappers used the same sized trap on raccoon as they would on beaver. These traps would restrict blood flow and numb the caught foot. This was part of the design as it reduced pain. However, on large jawed traps, smaller animals could fit their noses underneath, and while they bite at the trap on their foot, would unknowningly bite their foot as well, resulting in damage. Today's traps are specially designed with different sizes for different animals, preventing this type of damage from taking place.
The traps are often criticized for being indiscriminate, and non-target animals are sometimes caught in these traps, occasionally including dogs, cats, and endangered species. These animals are usually able to be released unharmed. Also, research has shown that these traps are not indiscriminate as sizes have become more varied, and sets (how a trap is placed and lured or baited) are regulated, preventing injury or capture to most non-targets. As a result the foothold/leghold trap has been banned in some countries and in eight U.S. states (Washington, California, Massachusetts, Colorado, Arizona, New Jersey, Florida, and Rhode Island). Trappers respond that a trapper knowledgeable about his/her target animal can set them so as to reduce the chances of other animals getting caught. Due to the fact that the foothold/leghold trap is a type of "live catch" trap, often "non target" animals caught, that have not been injured by the trap, can be released. Humane organizations criticize leghold traps for breaking animals' legs and leaving them in pain often for prolonged periods of time, but these traps do not break animals' legs if used properly. It is for this reason it is the preferred trap used for capture and relocation of endangered and threatened species such as Wolf, Otter and Bobcat.[10] [11]
In states that have banned the use of the foothold trap, a number of issues have arose. In Massachusetts, the beaver population exploded from 24,000 in 1996 to over 100,000 beaver in 2006. This increase has shown in a recent University of Massachusetts study that 83 percent of beaver are suffering from emaciation, injury or disease. Also, due to the increase in beaver populations, there has been an increase in wetlands. The increase of stagnant water in the warmer gulf-stream climate has given way to a variety of mosquito borne diseases including Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) and West Nile. Cases of illness and death of humans as a result of this has increased by more than 300% in the past 10 years since the foothold trap was banned (though bear in mind that even with this 300% increase, fewer than 40 cases have been reported among humans in Massachusetts in the last 42 years). In 2006, it was shown that half (50%) of the raccoon population tested positive for rabies, and one in three skunks carried the disease. In 2007, it was estimated that the coyote population in the state exceeded 10,000 animals. Due to the increasing numbers with no ability to effectively control them, diseases like mange, distemper and rabies have spread, and human/animal conflict has increased. [12][13][14]
Newer footholds on the market are known as dog-proof, and are designed to work only on raccoons. These traps are small, and rely on the raccoon's grasping nature to trigger the trap. They are sold as coon cuffs, bandit busters and egg traps just to name a few. [15]
[edit] Cage traps
Cage traps are live cages. They are usually baited, sometimes with food bait and sometimes with a live "lure" animal. Cage traps usually have a trigger located in the back of the cage that causes a door to shut, preventing the animal from escaping. Supporters of cage traps say that they are the most humane form of trapping, and in some countries are the only method of trapping allowed. However studies have shown that animals restrained in cage traps often break claws, teeth, skin their faces and must be euthanized as they cannot survive in the wild, certain to starve or die of abscesses and infection[citation needed]. Cage traps are used by animal control officers to catch unwanted animals and move them to another location without harm where permitted, as well as by gamekeepers to kill birds and animals that are pests. Relocation of wild animals is prohibited in most states, or highly restricted, due to predation and territorial victimizing that takes place on the transported animal, resulting in certain and often slow death. Cage traps are useful in catching large dangerous animals for transport and are a favourite of Australian crocodile trappers. Due to their bulk and cost, they are hard to set in great numbers and remote locations. [16]
[edit] Glue traps
Glue traps made using natural or synthetic adhesive applied to cardboard or similar material. Bait can be placed in the center or a scent may be added to the adhesive. Glue board traps are used primarily for rodent control indoors. Glue traps are not effective outdoors due to environmental conditions (moisture, dust) making the adhesive ineffective. Glue traps are not used by animal trappers or fur trappers and are almost exclusively used by homeowners for rodent control. Many groups oppose the use of glue traps for their alleged cruelty. Glue traps are not used for trapping birds, but sticky repellent can be applied to surfaces to temporarily repel perching birds from building ledges and statues. The adhesives registered for this use are classified as tactile repellents.
[edit] Unwanted catches
Other exclusion devices exist for snares. The catching of non-target animals can be minimized through the use of devices that exclude animals larger than the target animal. Deer stops are designed to release leg-snared deer and cattle, and are required for snare usage in many states of the USA. Precautions can be taken in the case of small animals as well. One UK report stated that researchers using 1.65 mm smooth wire, instead of the larger 2 mm standard wire, had brown hares caught about as frequently as foxes, with about half of those rabbits being released unharmed. ([17], section 2.7) The UK report goes on to say that using the standard, larger wire in addition to equipping the snares with rabbit stops eliminated the unwanted catch of brown hares. Guidelines can also advise against setting of killing traps, such as the conibear or "body gripper" where domestic pets or protected animals are likely to be.[18]
[edit] See also
- Big Game Hunter
- Bushmeat
- Bushfood, something quite different
- Cannon netting
- Duck Hunting
- Endangered species
- Fishing
- Fox hunting legislation
- Hunter-gatherer
- Hunting
- Hunting horn
- Ornithology
- Overfishing
- Persistence hunting
- Rocket net
- Trapping pit
- Wildlife
- World Hunting Association
[edit] Notes
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
Trap (O. Eng. treppe or traeppe, properly a step, as that or which an animal places its foot and is caught, cf. Ger. Treppe flight of stairs), a mechanical device for the snaring or catching anything, and especially wild animals. Traps for animals are of great antiquity, and no savage people has ever been discovered, whatever its culture scale, that did not possess some variety of snare. In the most primitive form of trap no mechanism need be present, e.g. a cavity into which the animal walks, as the pitfall of the Arabs and Africans or the snow-hole of the Inuit. Dr O. T. Mason has divided traps into three classes: enclosing traps, which imprison the victim without injury; arresting traps, which seize the subject without killing it, unless it be caught by the neck or round the lungs; and killing traps, which crush, pierce or cut to death.
Enclosing traps include the pen, cage, pit and door-traps. Pentraps are represented by the fences built in Africa into which antelopes and other animals are driven: and by fish-seines and poundnets. Among cage-traps may be mentioned bird-cones filled with cern and smeared with bird-lime, which adhere to the bird's head, blinding it and rendering its capture easy; the fish-trap and lobster-pot; and the coop-traps, of which the turkey-trap is an example. This consists of a roofed ditch ending in a cul-de-sac into which the bird is led by a row of corn-kernels. Over the further end a kind of coop is built; the bird, instead of endeavouring to retrace its steps, always seeks to escape upward and remains cooped. Pitfalls include not only those dug in the earth, at the bottom of which knives and spears are often fixed, but also several kinds of traps for small animals. One of these consists of a box near the top of which a platform is hung, in such a way that, when the animal leaps upon it to secure the bait, it is precipitated into the bottom of the box, while the platform swings back into place. Another kind of pitfall is formed of a sort of funnel of long poles, into which birds fall upon alighting on a perfectly balanced bar, to which a dish of corn is made fast. The door-traps form a large and varied class, ranging in size from the immense cage with sliding door in which such beasts as tigers are caught, to the common box-trap for mice or squirrels, the door of which falls when the spindle upon which the bait is fixed is moved. The box-trap with a simple ratchet door, allowing the animal or bird to push under the door or wires which fall back and imprison them, is alike an enclosing and an arresting trap.
There are four general classes of arresting traps, the mesh, the set-hook, the noose and the clutch.
The mesh-traps include the mesh and thong toils used of old for the capture of the lion and other large game, and the gill-net in the meshes of which fish are caught by the gills.
To the set-hook division are reckoned the set-lines of the angler, several kinds of trawls and the toggle or gorge attached to a line, which the animal, bird or fish swallows only to be held prisoner.
The noose-trap class is a very extensive one. The simplest examples are the common slip-noose snares of twine, wire or horsehair, set for birds or small mammals either on their feeding grounds or runways, the victim being caught by the neck, body or foot as it tries to push through the noose.
When the noose is used with bait it is generally attached to a stout sapling, which is bent over and kept from springing back by some device of the "figure-4" kind. This is constructed of three pieces of wood, one of the horizontal spindle on which the bait is placed, one of the upright driven into the ground, and the third the connecting cross-piece, fitted to the others so loosely that only the strain of the elastic sapling keeps the trap together. When the subject tries to secure the bait he dislodges the cross-piece and is caught by the noose, which is spread on the ground under the bait.
The Patagonians take the vicuna with one variety of this snare, and, before the moose (Cervus alces) was protected by law in North America, even that animal, weighing often 1,200 lb (600 kg), was caught in snares of wire and rope. There are two widely different types of clutchtraps: bird-lime and other tenacious substances, and jaw and claptraps. The simplest form of the first is adhesive fly-paper.
A common practice in Italy is to smear with bird-lime the branches in the neighbourhood of a captive owl, which results in the capture of numbers of birds, gathered to scold at their common enemy.
Examples of the clap-trap are the clap-net, consisting of two nets laid flat on the ground and attached to cords in such a manner that they fly up and close when the draw-cord is pulled by a concealed trapper; and the various other spring-traps used by bird-catchers.
The jaw-traps are the most important class of device for the capture of fur-bearing animals, and are the product of civilization. While crude specimens are known to have existed in the middle ages, the steel-trap as used to-day dates from the middle of the 18th century, and reached perfection in the latter half of the 19th, the "Newhouse," named from the American inventor, having been the first trap of high grade.
Steel-traps consist of two jaws, with or without teeth, which are worked by powerful single or double springs and are "sprung" when the subject steps upon the "pan," which is placed between the jaws and attached to a lever. They are made in many sizes, from the smallest, designed for rats, to the "Great Bear Tamer," weighing over 40 lb (20 kg), with jaws of 16 inches in which lions, tigers and grizzly bears are trapped. The steel-trap is set and concealed in such a manner that the animal must step on its pan in passing over it to secure the bait. In trapping such wary animals as the sable, marten, mink, otter or beaver, great care is taken to mask all signs of the trap and of human presence, the scent of the hands being neutralized by smoking the traps or avoided by the use of gloves.
In North America castoreum, musk, asafoetida, oil of anise and common fish oil are used to entice the subjects to the traps. Trails of some one of these scents are laid from different directions to the trap.
With the clutch-traps must also be reckoned the oldest form of steel-trap, now to be seen only in museums, the man-trap, which was used first about the middle of the 18th century when the systematic preservation of game rendered protection against poachers a necessity. Such a trap, from Gloucestershire, is over 6 ft (2 m) long, has 19 in (500 mm) serrated jaws and weighs 88 lb (40 kg). Another form of man-trap, the spring-gun, belongs to the next category, the killing traps, which are divided into traps of weight, point and edge. The most important of the weight class is the deadfall, of which the typical form consists of a pen over whose narrow entrance one or more logs are laid across a lighter log, which is balanced upon a spindle necessarily struck by the entering animal, causing the logs to fall upon its back. In some cases the bait is attached to the spindle itself. The dead-fall was always the favourite trap of the American Indians, and is in use among many aboriginal tribes in Africa and South America. A slab of stone is often used as a weight. The common mouse-trap which kills either by a blow or strangulation is a variety of dead-fall.
Of point-traps may be mentioned those of the impaling and the missile classes. An example of the former is the stake or spear placed by Arab and African tribes at the bottom of pitfalls for big game. Another impaling trap common in Africa is the harpoon down-fall, generally used for the hippopotamus. It consists of a heavily weighted harpoon suspended in such a way that the animal, passing beneath, breaks a cord and precipitates the harpoon upon itself. Another example of impalement is the hawk-trap, consisting of a circle of stout sharp wires, in the centre of which a live fowl is placed. A bird of prey attempting to secure the fowl is impaled upon the wires. Of missile traps the most universal are the ancient springbow and its modern representative the spring-gun. This is fixed upon stakes, or against a tree, with a line attached to the trigger and stretched immediately in front of the muzzle. An animal pressing against the string pulls the trigger and discharges the piece into its own body. An arrangement of sticks holding the bait in front of the muzzle is sometimes substituted for the string. Of edge-traps a curious example is the wolf-knife of Western America, which consists of a very sharp blade embedded in frozen fat. One of the wolves, licking the fat, cuts its tongue and a flow of blood ensues, with the result that not only the wolf itself but its companions become infuriated by the smell and taste, and the wounded beast, and often many of the others, are killed and devoured.
The Alaskan 'knife-trap' for large game consists of a heavy blade attached to a lever, which, when released by the animal biting at the bait, flies over and kills the victim.
[edit] Fur trapper
A fur trapper is a person whose occupation involved the trapping of animals for their fur. It was a popular trade particularly in the early days of the settlement of North America between the settlers and the local Indians. Many locations at which trading took place were referred to as trading posts.
Trapping continues to be a profession although few people make a full-time living from it. Competition from farm-raised animals and fluctuating populations of wild animals have made trapping a minor industry. Some species have collapsed to such an extent, though not a result of regulated trapping or hunting, but more from residential expansion and decreased habitat that havesting them is not allowed in some locations. This is especially true of predator species such as lynx which had smaller original populations than their prey.
Popular quarry of fur trappers are beaver, and also raccoon, mink, ermine, American pine marten and muskrat.
[edit] References
- ^ Zhuangzi, and Burton Watson. The Complete Works of Zhuang Zi. New York: Columbia University Press, 1968 (ISBN 0231031475), pp. 20-21
- ^ Chinese: 道："丰狐，文豹……不免于网罗机辟之患"
- ^ Natural History of Beavers
- ^ Leonard Mascall (Oxford Dictionary)
- ^ Mascall, Leonard. A Book of Fishing with Hook and Line: Another of Sundrie Engines and Trappes to take Polecats, Buzzards, Rates, 1590.
- ^ http://www.physorg.com/news5411.html
[edit] External links
- Camp Life in the Woods and the Tricks of Trapping and Trap Making by William Hamilton Gibson, from Project Gutenberg
- Traps and Snares Collection
- Wildwood Survival: How to construct a Figure-4 deadfall trap
- League Against Cruel Sports, cruel and indiscriminate snareshr:Traper
nl:Pelsjager ja:罠 pl:Traper ru:Ловушка
