Why do you say that?
Why do you say that?
I think he's going by the picture of the empty cage on the other forum thread. Could that critter that he's shown on the other thread reach in lift the chicken bait from its location and get out without stepping on that trip pad? I wouldn't know myself as I've never used live traps.
Ahhh, I read it as saying that the any animal that would eat the chickens the way they did wouldn't also be able to lift the chicken without stepping on the pad. I've seen some possums do weird stuff but they're pretty clumsy. Who knows.
I think their thought is that a possum isn't big enough to reach the carcass without stepping on the pan--it'd have to be something the size of a medium-sized dog (maybe a coyote or bobcat) to make that reach.
Bobcat.
I've seen coons do just that, I have(or had) video from a trail cam of one holding onto the top of a cage with one front paw and reaching over the trap pan and trying to pull the bait down. It was wired up so he couldn't and he gave up and backed out of the cage. This a was a pretty good sized coon as well. I don't know if they just know what the trap is, if they've been in one and released or they've seen another coon in one, i'm not sure. I've had them multiple times rip the label off tuna cans from inside the cage without ever touching the pan and I wire them all the way in the top back corner. Coons are a lot more agile and smarter than most people give them credit for but they're not nearly as great fighters as people make them out to be.
Now possums, I've seen them act like coons by using their paws like hands on occasion but they're clumsy and most of the time dumber than ****, so if it was a possum, he's an exceptional example of the species.
I always stab the bait to the bottom.
I wire it to the top but I run a piece of rebar through the cage to keep it from being tipped over. That coon I described in my previous post had me trying every trick in the book. I caught him once and he bent the pivot the door swings on and managed to get out. I reset the trap and he flipped it over and walked right in and ate the squirrel I had in it while the trap door was upside down and the trip pan was up in the air which put the squirrel on the bottom, haha. I added the camera and a #2 bridger and got that video and the coon in a dirt hole set, sneaky little guy that one was.
I've honestly never thought about wiring it to the bottom, I might give that a try soon
Just stab the rebar stake right through the can through the floor of the trap into the ground. Easy peasy and takes less time and keeps something from taking the bait or rolling the trap over.
What's really going on over there Junior????
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