THE PERFORMANCE OF WILD-CANID TRAPS IN AUSTRALIA - EFFICIENCY, SELECTIVITY AND TRAP-RELATED INJURIES

Wild dogs and European red foxes are considered pest animals in Austra lia. Restraining devices to capture these wild canids are sometimes re quired by wildlife managers. However, the use of traps is controversia l. This paper discusses the efficiency, selectivity and injuries infli cted by some leg-hold traps that are available in Australia for captur ing wild canids. The trapping of feral cats with wild-canid traps is a lso briefly discussed. The most commonly used leg-hold trap in Austral ia is the toothed, steel-jawed, leg-hold trap. Alternative traps, incl uding offset- and padded-jawed traps (similar to the Victor Soft Catch )(R), and steel-jawed traps that have been modified to incorporate pad ding and off-setting of jaws, were shown to be preferable. The alterna tive traps were as efficient and selective as toothed, steel-jawed tra ps, but were less injurious. The Treadle snare, although more likely t o miss target animals, was also shown to be less injurious than unmodi fied, steel-jawed leg-hold traps. It is difficult to justify the conti nued use of unmodified, steel-jawed leg-hold traps for the capture of wild canids in Australia.