Trapping: Encyclopedia - Trapping

Trapping

The human activity of animal trapping consists of hunting for animals to obtain their furs, which are then used for clothes and other artifacts, or sold / bartered (see fur trade). Trappers may often, but not exclusively, use traps to catch their prey; hence the name of the activity and its practitioners. Hunters may also trap animals for food.

Trapping other animals for food is also practiced by some animals, for example, the funnel web spider traps its prey.

Trapping - History

Animal trapping is perhaps one of the first methods of hunting. It requires less time and energy than most other methods, and can give a very good result, if not quite as fast. It is also comparably safer for the hunter.

200,000 years ago, in the Lower Paleolithic period, traps were used by central european people to hunt mammoths.

In 1590, jaw traps started being used in England.

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 one of the main economical forces in the early days of North American settlements (such as the Canadian Fur Brigade).

Even today many people rely on traps to remove smaller animals, such as mice.

Trapping - Traps

Today most of the traps used can be easily divided into four types: body gripping traps, snares, leghold traps, and cages. There are also a number of traditional designs.

Trapping - Body gripping/crushing traps

The body gripping traps are traps made to kill the animal caught. They are frequently called "Conibear" traps after one of the most common brand, but even a simple mousetrap is one. The animal must be lured 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 snap the spine. Humane organizations criticize the trap for causing prolonged death. There has been quite a lot of research to create traps that can be made more humanely. Among the proposed constructions are a box in which taking the bait actually triggers the trap and crushes the animal against the bottom of the box. Most (if not all) of these traps rely on blunt trauma so to not destroy the pelt of the animal being taken.

Trapping - Snares

Snares are one of the simplest and most effective traps. Made of high quality cable they are cheap to produce and easy to set a large number of. A snare works more or less like the leash for a dog, except that as the animal struggles, the snare tightens around the animal, choking it.

Trapping - Leghold traps

Probably most commonly associated with trapping, the leghold trap has been banned in most countries and in eight U.S. states (Washington, California, Massachusetts, Colorado, Arizona, New Jersey, Florida, and Rhode Island) for its cruelty. It is made up of two jaws, a spring of some sort, and a trigger in the middle. When the animal steps on the trigger the trap closes around the leg, holding the animal in place. Usually some kind of lure is used to position the animal, or the trap is set on an animal trail. The traps are indiscriminate, catching any animal that steps in one. It commonly breaks animals legs, and many die from blood loss, injury, or exposure before the trapper returns to kill the animal, typically with blunt force trauma. Many animals will chew off their own legs to escape -- one study found 39% of raccoons did this. Traditionally, leghold traps had tightly closing "teeth" to make sure the animal stayed in place. Modern trappers have found that steel traps with thick smooth jaws hold animals fine and treat them better than traps of old. Leghold traps set for beaver, mink, river otter, and muskrat are positioned in shallow water along the shores and banks of rivers, lakes and ponds. The trap is attached to a weight sunk in deeper water. The animal, when caught by the leg, tries to escape by diving into deep water and drowns. More modern traps have a gap called an "offset jaw" and work more like a handcuff. Also there are padded jaw traps that work in the same manner.

Trapping - Cage traps

Cage traps are live cages and do not harm the animal, and are usually baited. They usually have a trigger that is located in the back of the cage and it triggers a door to shut and not allowing the animal to escape. Cage trapping is the most humane form of trapping and is also occasionally the only form of trapping a country may allow. They are mostly used to catch unwanted animals and moving them to another location, without harm.

Trapping - Environmental impact

The environmental effect of trapping is only partially understood. Many species have been trapped (in combination with hunting) to extinction from large areas. Today trapping is more closely regulated in the western countries, but remains unregulated in many areas outside America and Europe. Trapping is regularly used to significantly lower the population of local mammals, most commonly Beaver, Coyote, Raccoon and Fox. This is usually done to limit damage to farming and increase the populations of birds and deer that are popular to hunt.

Trapping - Unwanted catches

One of the hardest problems with trapping is unwanted catches. Skilled trappers can limit this problem, but it is never completely gone. Catching unintended animals may only be a problem for the trapper, but when people's pets or endangered animals are caught, trappers can be in a world of trouble. Unwanted catching is one of the most common reasons for outlawing trapping, together with animal protection. For this reason it is important for inexperienced trappers to educate themselves on proper methods to avoid unintended catches.

Trapping - Animal protection

There has been much debate over the animal protection aspects of trapping. On one side are the trappers, claiming trapping is humane compared to natural population controls such as disease and starvation. On the other side are the animal rights activists who dismiss trapping as cruel. The fact that most of the animals trapped are also traditionally "likeable" animals has only increased the animal rights groups' campaigns to ban trapping.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Trapping", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki