Trap Left Unset Status

I an thinking about raising a feature request but would like to ask others how they do this in the first place. In our experience with possums and wallabies we found it best to set up traps as feeding stations in the first instance leaving the trap unset and regularly replacing the bait. Then after a few months start setting the trap for short periods.

Does anyone else do this? I can see that if you are the only one on the line then this is easy to do but the thinking is to allow others to know which traps are meant to be set and which are there to feed the beasts.

Hi Gary,

Status: ‘Sprung’ ??

I’m interested in why you would do this for a permanent or long set trap. I fully understand the benefits of pre-feeding, particularly for temporary traps where they are only active for a short period:

  • The trapper wants a fresh carcass for fur, maximum knock down in a set period.
  • Pre-feeding is perhaps less time consuming than setting traps.
  • In the case of certain toxins where you don’t want it in the environment for extended periods (doesn’t really apply to targeted bait stations.)

Outside of those scenarios why not leave the trap active at all times? By all means use the lure in other places and as a lead in to the trap to normalise the food source (I do this on our project.)

For ground set traps I appreciate you limit the risk for non-target species, for tree mounted possums traps, or for boxed mustelid traps, that doesn’t apply though. The only other benefit I can think of is in the scenario where the animal is part of a group whereby trap activation might provide a negative learning experience to the others. Through remote sensors on multi-kill traps I’m certain this doesn’t happen with possums (i.e. multiple kills within a minutes of each other.)

Interested in peoples thoughts.