Dear trap.nz, we want to try and record both possum and rat kills from our network of AT220s so that we can make use of the resulting data for monitoring the effectiveness of the traps.
Our planned approach is to make two visit records for each trap on our network each time they are serviced (every 3-4 months) - one recording the number of ‘possum’ catches/strikes, and another recording the other catches/strikes as rats, which they are most likely to be.
I’m keen to understand how well this may work for anyone doing it already, or any other approaches to recording data from AT220s.
Hi This is how we record the data from our AT220 - do one record for the possums and then immediately do another record for other critters - which we report as “unspecified” or “other” - unless we can see the dead critters at the trap. The TrapNZ app will warn you that you have just made a record for the trap, and ask if you want to make another record - you can just say “yes” to another record and 2 records are created. There is a “telemetry” way to sync with the TrapNZ app but we haven’t got this sussed yet. But would be interested to hear if others are using the telemetry method and if it works OK and is not too complicated.
Best wishes for your trapping
V
@ac_gd - suppport what @vivsc has detailed
We check our AT220’s monthly (particularly to check batteries - some batteries don’t last as long as others) - record the number of possums in TrapNZ, then record the number of “other strikes” (saying yes to the 2nd record), then reset the counter, for the next month period. Do we know if the “other strikes” is a mouse or a rat - no, only if we see any evidence of bodies / hang ups in the traps. Generally these are recorded as rats, unless mouse remains are evident. Happy trapping.
Same as everyone else we do double entries and usually describe additional baits (like flour blaze or smooth blue on the trunk of the tree) and battery change on the entry for the possums. and do another entry for ship rats in bush, or mice or an estimated split if we see bodies of both types.
The telemetry is not very useful at this stage, it is visible only on the personal account of the user that checked the trap, and it is only available in the ‘reports’ section of the trapnz website. It’s a real pain for us operating around 190 AT220’s with 5 or so different staff, so I only use it to look up specifically if one trap is having issues.