Trapping
Animal trapping, or simply trapping or ginning, is the use of a device to remotely catch and often kill an animal. Animals may be trapped for a variety of purposes, including for meat, fur/feathers, sport hunting, pest control, and wildlife management.
History
hunters, including the members of the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture of Romania and Ukraine, used traps to capture their prey. An early mention in written form is a passage from the self-titled book by Taoist philosopher Zhuangzi which 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." "Modern" steel jaw-traps were first described in western sources as early as the late 16th century. The first mention comes from Leonard Mascall's book on animal trapping. It reads: "a griping trappe made all of yrne, the lowest barre, and the ring or hoope with two clickets". The mousetrap, with a strong spring device mounted on a wooden base, was first patented by William C. Hooker of Abingdon, Illinois, in 1894.Reasons
Trapping is carried out for a variety of reasons. Originally, it was for food, fur, and other animal products. Trapping has since been expanded to encompass pest control, wildlife management, the pet trade, and zoological specimens.Fur clothing
In the early days of the colonization settlement of North America, the trading of furs was common between the Dutch, French, or English and the indigenous populations inhabiting their respective colonized territories. Many locations where trading took place were referred to as trading posts. Much trading occurred along the Hudson River area in the early 1600s.In some locations in the US and in many parts of southern and western Europe, trapping generates much controversy because it is a contributing factor to declining populations in some species, such as the Canadian lynx. In the 1970s and 1980s, the threat to lynx from trapping reached a new height when the price for hides rose to as much as $600 each. By the early 1990s, the Canada lynx was a clear candidate for Endangered Species Act protection. In response to the lynx's plight, more than a dozen environmental groups petitioned FWS in 1991 to list lynx in the lower 48 states. Fish and Wildlife Services regional offices and field biologists supported the petition, but FWS officials in the Washington, D.C., headquarters turned it down. In March 2000, the FWS listed the lynx as threatened in the lower 48.
The prices of fur pelts have significantly declined. Some trappers have considered forgoing trapping because the cost of trapping exceeds the return on the furs sold at the end of the season.
Perfume
Beaver castors are used in many perfumes as a sticky substance. Trappers are paid by the government of Ontario to harvest the castor sacs of beavers and are paid from 10 to 40 dollars per dry pound when sold to the Northern Ontario Fur Trappers Association.In the early 1900s, muskrat glands were used in making perfume, or women just crushed the glands and rubbed them onto their body.
Pest control
Trapping is regularly used for pest control of beaver, coyote, raccoon, cougar, bobcat, Virginia opossum, fox, squirrel, rat, mouse and mole in order to limit damage to households, food supplies, farming, ranching, and property.Traps are used as a method of pest control as an alternative to pesticides. Commonly spring traps which hold the animal are used—mousetraps for mice, or the larger rat traps for larger rodents like rats and squirrel. Specific traps are designed for invertebrates such as cockroaches and spiders. Some mousetraps can also double as an insect or universal trap, like the glue traps which catch any small animal that walks upon them.
Although it is common to state that trapping is an effective means of pest control, a counter-example is found in the work of Jon Way, a biologist in Massachusetts. Way reported that the death or disappearance of a territorial male coyote can lead to double litters, and postulates a possible resultant increase in coyote density. Coexistence programs that take this scientific research into account are being pursued by groups such as the Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals.
Wildlife management
Animals are frequently trapped in many parts of the world to prevent damage to personal property, including the killing of livestock by predatory animals.Many wildlife biologists support the use of regulated trapping for the sustained harvest of some species of furbearers. Research shows that trapping can be an effective method of managing or studying furbearers, controlling damage caused by furbearers, and at times reducing the spread of harmful diseases. The research shows that regulated trapping is a safe, efficient, and practical means of capturing individual animals without impairing the survival of furbearer populations or damaging the environment. Wildlife biologists also support regulatory and educational programs, research to evaluate trap performance and the implementation of improvements in trapping technology in order to improve animal welfare.
Trapping is useful to control over population of certain species. Trapping is also used for research and relocation of wildlife. 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, California least tern and desert tortoise.
Other reasons
Animals may be trapped for public display, for natural history displays, or for such purposes as obtaining elements used in the practice of traditional medicine. Trapping may also be done for hobby and conservation purposes.Types
Most of the traps used for mammals can be divided into six types: foothold traps, body gripping traps, snares, deadfalls, cages, and glue traps. Some of the traditional kinds have changed little since the Stone Age.Foothold traps
Foothold traps were invented in the 17th century for use against humans, to keep poachers out of European estates. The device uses a pressure plate between two metal arms, or "jaws", lined with spiked protrusions, or "teeth". Once the plate has been stepped on, the arms close on the ensnared person or animal's foot. Blacksmiths made traps of iron in the early 1700s for trappers. By the 1800s, companies began to manufacture steel foothold traps. Traps are designed in different sizes for different sized animals.In recent decades, the use of foothold traps in trapping and hunting has become controversial. Anti-fur campaigns have protested foothold traps as inhumane, with some claiming that an animal caught in a foothold trap will frequently chew off its leg to escape the trap. The practice has been banned in 101 countries as well as 10 states in the United States.
Modern variations of the foothold trap have been designed to reduce instances of the animal fighting the trap, possibly injuring itself or getting loose in the process. These include traps with offset jaws and lamination, which decrease pressure on the animals' legs, and padded jaws with rubber inserts, which reduce animal injuries. Manufacturers of traps designed to work only on raccoons are referred to as dog-proof. These traps are small, and rely on the raccoon's grasping nature to trigger the trap.
Body gripping/conibear traps
Body-gripping traps are designed to kill animals quickly. They are often called "Conibear" traps after Canadian inventor Frank Conibear who began their manufacture in the late 1950s as the Victor-Conibear trap. Many trappers consider these traps to be one of the best trapping innovations of the 20th century; when they work as intended, animals that are caught squarely on the neck are killed quickly, and are therefore not left to suffer or given a chance to escape.The general category of body-gripping traps may include snap-type mouse and rat traps, but the term is more often used to refer to the larger, all-steel traps that are used to catch fur-bearing animals. These larger traps are made from bent round steel bars. These traps come in several sizes including model #110 or #120 at about for muskrat and mink, model #220 at about for raccoon and possum, and model #330 at about for beaver and otter.
An animal may be lured into a body-gripping trap with bait, or the trap may be placed on an animal path to catch the animal as it passes. In any case, it is important that the animal be guided into the correct position before the trap is triggered. The standard trigger is a pair of wires that extend between the jaws of the set trap. The wires may be bent into various shapes, depending on the size and behavior of the target animal. Modified triggers include pans and bait sticks. The trap is designed to close on the neck and/or torso of an animal. When it closes on the neck, it closes the trachea and the blood vessels to the brain, and often fractures the spinal column; the animal loses consciousness within a few seconds and dies soon thereafter. If it closes on the foot, leg, snout, or other part of an animal, the results are less predictable.
Trapping ethics call for precautions to avoid the accidental killing of non-target species by body-gripping traps.
Note on terminology: the term "body-gripping trap" is often used by animal-protection advocates to describe any trap that restrains an animal by holding onto any part of its body. In this sense, the term is defined to include foothold/foothold traps, Conibear-type traps, snares, and cable restraints; it does not include cage traps or box traps that restrain animals solely by containing them inside the cages or boxes without exerting pressure on the animals; it generally does not include suitcase-type traps that restrain animals by containing them inside the cages under pressure.