Modifying the Victor® easy Set® rat trap to improve the animal welfare of stoats and ship rats trapped in New Zealand.

Stoats (Mustela erminea) and ship rats (Rattus rattus) in New Zealand are targeted by trapping to mitigate their predation on native wildlife. Internationally recognized guidelines for assessing the effectiveness and welfare performance of kill traps are supported by New Zealand legislation under th...

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Main Authors: Grant A Morriss, Bruce Warburton
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2014-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3914800?pdf=render
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spelling doaj-ae1aa0b453df4c62baa3b81a40ffb27f2020-11-25T01:56:04ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032014-01-0192e8676010.1371/journal.pone.0086760Modifying the Victor® easy Set® rat trap to improve the animal welfare of stoats and ship rats trapped in New Zealand.Grant A MorrissBruce WarburtonStoats (Mustela erminea) and ship rats (Rattus rattus) in New Zealand are targeted by trapping to mitigate their predation on native wildlife. Internationally recognized guidelines for assessing the effectiveness and welfare performance of kill traps are supported by New Zealand legislation under the Animal Welfare Act 1999. The Victor® Easy Set® rat trap was tested and passed a similar standard for killing short-tailed weasels in Canada but failed for stoats when tested in New Zealand in 2002 (short-tailed weasels and stoats are the same species). We tested a modified version of the trap in 2011-12, modified by changing the treadle trigger to a pull trigger and adding a plastic shroud to direct and align approach by animals to the front of the trap. These traps, in vertical and horizontal sets, were tested with both stoats and ship rats. During each test the trap had to render 10 of 10 animals irreversibly unconscious within 3 minutes to meet approval requirements. The modified trap passed with both species in both trap sets. All stoats were struck across the cranium whereas rats were struck either on the cranium or neck. We recommend this trap design for use by community conservation groups for targeting stoats and ship rats in New Zealand.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3914800?pdf=render
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Grant A Morriss
Bruce Warburton
spellingShingle Grant A Morriss
Bruce Warburton
Modifying the Victor® easy Set® rat trap to improve the animal welfare of stoats and ship rats trapped in New Zealand.
PLoS ONE
author_facet Grant A Morriss
Bruce Warburton
author_sort Grant A Morriss
title Modifying the Victor® easy Set® rat trap to improve the animal welfare of stoats and ship rats trapped in New Zealand.
title_short Modifying the Victor® easy Set® rat trap to improve the animal welfare of stoats and ship rats trapped in New Zealand.
title_full Modifying the Victor® easy Set® rat trap to improve the animal welfare of stoats and ship rats trapped in New Zealand.
title_fullStr Modifying the Victor® easy Set® rat trap to improve the animal welfare of stoats and ship rats trapped in New Zealand.
title_full_unstemmed Modifying the Victor® easy Set® rat trap to improve the animal welfare of stoats and ship rats trapped in New Zealand.
title_sort modifying the victor® easy set® rat trap to improve the animal welfare of stoats and ship rats trapped in new zealand.
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
series PLoS ONE
issn 1932-6203
publishDate 2014-01-01
description Stoats (Mustela erminea) and ship rats (Rattus rattus) in New Zealand are targeted by trapping to mitigate their predation on native wildlife. Internationally recognized guidelines for assessing the effectiveness and welfare performance of kill traps are supported by New Zealand legislation under the Animal Welfare Act 1999. The Victor® Easy Set® rat trap was tested and passed a similar standard for killing short-tailed weasels in Canada but failed for stoats when tested in New Zealand in 2002 (short-tailed weasels and stoats are the same species). We tested a modified version of the trap in 2011-12, modified by changing the treadle trigger to a pull trigger and adding a plastic shroud to direct and align approach by animals to the front of the trap. These traps, in vertical and horizontal sets, were tested with both stoats and ship rats. During each test the trap had to render 10 of 10 animals irreversibly unconscious within 3 minutes to meet approval requirements. The modified trap passed with both species in both trap sets. All stoats were struck across the cranium whereas rats were struck either on the cranium or neck. We recommend this trap design for use by community conservation groups for targeting stoats and ship rats in New Zealand.
url http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3914800?pdf=render
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AT brucewarburton modifyingthevictoreasysetrattraptoimprovetheanimalwelfareofstoatsandshipratstrappedinnewzealand
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