Animal trapping

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Bird trapping, tacuinum sanitatis casanatensis (XIV century)

The human activity of animal trapping has two separate but related meanings. Firstly, it describes the hunting of animals to obtain their furs, which are then used for clothes and other articles, or sold / bartered (see fur trade). Secondly, trapping relates to the use of traps to catch animals for a variety of other purposes, most usually for food or pest control.

Trapping other animals for food is also practiced by some animals, for example, the funnel web spider traps its prey.

History

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Animal trapping is perhaps one of the first methods of hunting. 200,000 years ago, in the Lower Paleolithic period, traps were used by central European people to hunt mammoths.[citation needed] A passage from the self-titled book by Taoist philosopher Zhuangzi implies the Chinese were using some form of Jaw trap since at least the 4th century BCE. The Zhuangzi reads, "fox, leopards, they all fall into the jaw trap trouble."The Chinese word for jaw trap is Jiazi (夹子). "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, "[sic] a griping trappe made all of yrne, the lowest barre, and the ring or hoope with two clickets.[sic]"The mouse trap, with a strong spring mounted on a wooden base, was patented in 1910 by James Henry Atkinson, a trap maker from Leeds, England.

Trapping was widely used in the early days of North American settlements (such as the Canadian Fur Brigade). Native Americans trapped fur bearing animals with pits, dead falls, and rudimentary snares. A dead fall is a heavy rock or log that is tilted on an angle and held up with branches, one of them that serves as a trigger. When the animal moves the trigger which may have bait on it, the rock or log falls killing the animal. The four figure dead fall is a popular and simple trap constructed from materials from the bush. Early trappers in America were the first to travel across the plains and into the Rocky Mountains in search of fur. They used steel leg hold traps as well as snares and dead falls. Beaver was one of the main animals of interest to the trappers as the fur wore well in coats and hats. Beaver hats became popular in the early 1800s but by 1840 the beaver were wiped out. Trappers then turned to buffalo hunting or serving as scouts for the army or leading wagon trains to California and other parts of the west.

Use of traps

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Trapping requires less time and energy than most other methods and can be very efficient. For this reason, trapping is safer and less expensive for the hunter, but in modern times it has become controversial for its alleged cruelty.

Trapping is regularly used for pest control most commonly beaver, Coyote, raccoon, Cougar, Bobcat, Virginia Opossum and fox in order to limit damage to farming, ranching, and property. It is used to reduce numbers of predators in order to increase the populations of quarry species for hunting. It can also be used to control over-population or control diseases such as rabies, mange, and tularemia. Trapping is also used for research and relocation of wildlife.

Trapping is regulated in the western countries, but remains unregulated in many areas outside America and Europe.

The environmental effect of trapping is only partially understood. Many species have been trapped (in combination with hunting) to extinction from large areas.