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Trapping is a very old method of hunting, perhaps one of the first. It requires less time and energy than most other methods, and can give a very good result, if not quite as fast. It’s also comparably safe for the hunter. Trapping was one of the main economical forces in the early days of North American settlements.
Even today many people rely on traps to remove smaller animals, such as mice.
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.
The body gripping traps are traps made to quickly kill the animal caught. They are frequently called “Conibear” traps after one of the most common brand, but even the simple mousetrap is one. The animal has to be lured or guided into the correct position before the trap is triggered. It is usually built to strike at the back of the neck of the animal and snap the spine. The effect should be instant or next to instant death, but if the animal is not correctly positioned the trap might not work as intended. There has been quite a lot of research to create traps that cannot “fail”. Among the proposed constructions are a box where triggering the trap by taking the bait crushes the animal against the bottom of the box. Most (if not all) of these traps relies on blunt trauma not to destroy the pelt of the animal being taken.
Snares are one of the simplest traps and at the same time effective. Made of high quality wire they are cheap to produce and easy to set a large number of. This has made them a large problem, as snares can kill animals for years after the trapper left the area. Snares can be set in a number of different ways. First of all they can be set “locking” or “free running”. A locking snare has a small lock that makes sure the snare can only get tighter. They are used to strangle the animal being captured. A free running snare works more or less like the leash for a dog. It keeps the animal in place, but without hurting it. Neither is fail proof however. In some areas spring loaded snares are used, often replacing leg hold traps. These are set on the ground with a trigger, just like the leg hold trap.
Probably most tightly associated with trapping the leghold trap is a rather simple mechanical trap. 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 get the animal into position, or the trap is set on an animal trail. Traditionally the traps had tightly closing “teeth” to make sure the animals stayed in place. The teeth also made sure the animal could not move the leg in the trap and wear the coat. However, this resulted in a lot of animals gnawing their ways out of the trap. More modern traps have a gap and work more like a handcuff. They grip above the paw, making sure the animal can’t pull out but does not destroy the leg. This allows the trapper to release unwanted catches.
Cage traps are open cages, usually baited, with a trigger that closes the cage around the animal when it’s inside. The most humane form of trapping it is also the only form of trapping allowed in many countries.
Trapping can have a very hard effect on the local population. The most active animals are also those most likely to be caught. A large percentage of the catches are adult animals. Trapping is also one of the main methods used by poachers. On its own the impacts of trapping differs little from those from hunting.
One of the hardest problems with trapping is unwanted catches. With skill trappers can limit this problem, but it never goes away completely. Catching unintended animals that may just be a problem for the trapper. Catching people’s pets or endangered animals is a risk that all trappers take. This is one of the most common reasons for outlawing trapping, together with animal protection.
There has been a lot of debate over animal protection aspects of trapping. On one side are the trappers, claiming it is very humane. On the other side are the animal rights activists. The far larger group of hunters has often not decided which side to support. Trapping can result in a lot of pain for the animals caught, and it is often more obvious than during hunting. It’s hard to tell how much a wounded deer suffers from being hunted, but it’s much easier to tell how much a fox badly caught in a trap suffers from the mauled paw. The fact that most of the animals trapped are also traditionally “likeable” animals has only increased the animal rights groups’ campaigns to get trapping banned.
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