Our project has grown to over 400 households since starting 7 years ago, but we now have less than 50 households actively trapping. Please, what has helped other PF projects get households trapping again, and/or keep them trapping?
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@sumnerpaul, what sort of reporting does your project use to share its results with households? Many people like to see/track their âkill statsâ, either from the project homepage or in a visual like a map, graph, or hexmap, and at Trapper level you canât see many of the TrapNZ reports that Admins can see.
If you havenât already got a hexmap for your project, you can make one by following the instructions here: Creating a static hex ⌠| Trap.NZ Help & User guides. The benefit of hexmaps is that you can put them on your website and the data will update automatically from TrapNZ. It also aggregates locations so exact trap locations arenât shown, which is important for privacy when traps are on private properties. One potential downside for some backyard trapping groups is that the list of target species includes âcatâ, which can be a divisive issue.
Heat-maps can be effective as well - you can make these here: Trap records | Trap.NZ It will depend a bit on your project as to whether these look good or not, and whether the maps show too much detail about who has traps and who doesnât, but you can spend some time experimenting with settings - for instance, displaying one year at a time vs All Time.
Monthly totals are available as either a graph or table. One feature that the table includes is a success percentage, which is a great stat if your trappers usually record every no-catch check and relure but isnât so helpful if they only record catches because then the stat inaccurately shows as 100% success.
Of course, I know not everyone likes maps and graphs as much as I do, but I think most trappers like to see how their little bit of the project fits into the bigger picture.
One other thought - if your project has been going a while and catch rates are getting a bit low, your trappers might actually be getting disheartened by their success. From experience, it gets really boring checking traps that donât catch anything for months at a time! If thatâs the case, maybe some of your volunteers might like to expand their areas to include a neighbourâs garden, or take up a line in a nearby reserve, or do some monitoring work (tracking tunnels, bird counts, weta hotelsâŚ) - basically, anything where they can see a direct and positive result rather than the indirect âabsence of evidence is not evidence of absenceâ vibe you get from empty traps.
You may already be doing some or all of this, but those are the things that Iâve found most helpful personally.
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Thanks Christina, we will wait and see what other comments come in, so weâll consider all your points. For starters, I think we have been poor re feedback - we used to do a monthly email, but itâs now less frequent. We offered opportunities for checking traplines in nearby bush. Those opportunities attract the keen regulars, so I am wondering how we up the game of the less committed trappers. I appreciate you taking time out to comment. Thanks. Paul
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Thanks for raising the topic Paul! I think itâs something that a lot of groups will relate to, and Iâm looking forward to seeing how the discussion develops.
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What a great suggestion -Creating a Static Hex map - And thank you for an excellent way to keep my group up to date! I have sent one out with a Hex Map link - brilliant idea. Like @sumnerpaul, I want to limit trapper fatigue. I figure keeping communication going is the best way to encourage people to make trapping part of their daily routines. TrapNZ is a brilliant resource but does need persistence to master all the reporting parameters.
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I intend to chat to some of our trappers and non-trappers, from the following three groups: trappers who report, trappers who donât report, and people who stop trapping. And I will find out what a Hex map is, as I think communication is part of the answer, both project-wide and individually. I am thinking that there may be something to learn from gaming and/or marketing. For example, providing feedback that summarises a trapperâs catches, and sort of provides a target, eg, how to get from bronze to silver.
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Smart Trapping Made Easy with trap.nz
trap.nz supports several smart tools that help make backyard trapping more efficient, compliant, and fun:
- Sensor Traps
Add a sensor to your trap, and trap.nz will notify you when itâs been triggered.
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For live capture traps, this helps you meet legal requirements by checking the trap promptly.
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For kill traps, it means you can remove the pest while itâs still freshâno more dealing with decomposing animals!
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QR Codes
Every trap created in trap.nz is automatically assigned a unique QR code.
- Simply print, laminate, and attach the code to your trapâor stick it on the fridge if you only have one!
Scanning it opens the trap record instantly, so you can log a catch without opening the app or searching the map.
- NFC Tags
Just like QR codes, NFC tags open the catch form on your phone with a quick tap.
- Bonus: theyâre weather-resistant, making them perfect for outdoor use.
NFC tags can be purchased in our shop
Why use QR and NFC codes?
Because they save time! With one scan or tap, youâre straight into the catch form for the trap youâre standing next toâno fussing with maps or menus.
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Thanks Lenore, sadly we moved away from TrapNZ a few years ago for reporting catches. I say sadly as many of our trappers were very happy with TrapNZ, and it looks like you have improved it further with your NFC tags. Please, does your system go even further and provide the trapper (not the project) with feedback after they have logged a catch? For example, well done, keep at it, thatâs your 5th catch this year. Cheers, Paul
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Kia ora @sumnerpaul Iâm sorry trap.nz hasnât worked for your project. There have been huge changes in trap.nz in the last few years. Currently we donât have the ability to see the features you have mentioned, however, I do know they are currently being worked on where an individual can pull up reports on their own efforts etc
Hi.
Ken here in Timaru.
I have become a bit discouraged since Joining predator free Timaru group a few months back. I kill a lot of possums in our adjacent reserve (44 in last year and a half. 87 in sth Cant total) using my dog to find them and then death by violence. The disappointing part is my kills cant be logged so they count, because I roam and its not an official âtrapâ so it doesnt end up on the area total. I log them as POI on my project, but the glaring tally chart on the screen map in my project shows ZERO kills of any sort. Seems I cant log a kill unless it is a trap, and if I make it a trap by my dogs name, it is a problem moving it around, which I cant do.
@kenagain, have you tried using one-off records? This lets you create the kill without creating a permanent trap. If you use the app, youâll see the kill as a little red pawprint on your screen, which might be handy if you want to quickly see the areas where youâve got most possums, but other trappers wonât see your location icons without searching for one-off records on the website.
Adding one-off records⌠| Trap.NZ Help & User guides
Last time I checked, the main thing you canât do with these records is assign them to a line. They will still be added to the projectâs kill totals, but you canât filter them by location. You also need to enter one-off records individually rather than bulk-uploading, which isnât a problem in the field but might take a bit of time to move your historic data from POIs to one-off kills.
Hope that helps!
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I will look into it. Have to explore how to do one off records. I have built a project in my area here in Timaru, called âScenic Reserve Meg Possum Hitsâ which is where I have been logging the POI, it is showing me the possum concentration areas within the reserve so I will continue that for the rest of the year.
I am currently accessing Trap.NZ via computer. My older phone was struggling for space and I had to delete the app. I was also finding that if I wanted to look over the whole project area it would keep centering me back at my location, and if i turned off the location then it wouldnt show the project traps. Frustrating. So I was not going to use it anymore and just stick with the computer.
However having now bought new phone I will probably reinstall it.
@kenagain you can also add one-off kills on the website, the instructions for that method are here: Adding One-off records⌠| Trap.NZ Help & User guides
You wonât see the one-off kills mapped on the website the same way you would on the app, so if you donât mind a bit of extra data-entry time, adding them as both POIs and one-off kills would allow you to still see your kill locations on any device while making sure your project kill stats are up-to-date.
Some other functions you might find useful (or maybe are already using):
- Project categories for your POIs. Because youâre the project admin, you can edit these using the methods here: Adding your terms into project categories | Trap.NZ Help & User guides You could add different POI categories for adult/juvenile possums, male/female/female-with-joey, or whatever, which might speed up your data entry.
- Tags will let you use the filters to search within your POIs. In one of my projects, I tag the generic pest plant POIs with the exact species as well, so I can then look at the map filtered for just that species.
- As an admin you can colour-code your past POIs using the bulk edit function, if you decide that you want your map to always show, say, where juveniles vs adults were caught. Bulk editing installations | Trap.NZ Help & User guides Bulk-edit will work on other POI features like tags too.
@kenagain You can run a trap records with map report (on the website) that allows you to filter the âone-offâ catches, however, the only person that can see the âone-offâ catches on the phone app is the person who has added it on their phone
The auto centre button at the bottom of the project map ensures you stay in the centre of the screen, you can turn off auto-centering by clicking the button and turning the cross grey. You can also change the size of your map tiles in the menu- map settings to allow the project to show in its entirety
Thanks folks. Will visit all this in future, as busy playing new grandparent at the moment. Possums are starting to move more with the warming weather. We killed one this morning, and there is a lot of light yellow scat on tracks, showing they are feeding on fresh buds.
Ken.
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