The Fur Animals of Louisiana 



353 



It would appear that the regular two-jawed trap catches 

 more adults and less mice and kits than the two-trigger 

 trap. This conclusion seems to be borne out by reports 

 from trapping camps where the kit percentage is high co- 

 incident with the use of the trap with the killer bar. 



"Better traps than any in present use are greatly needed 

 in the muskrat industry, traps that will catch and instantly 

 kill the animals or take them alive, so the valueless young, 

 the unprime and a large percentage of the females can be 

 released unharmed," insists Vernon Bailey, who put his in- 

 genious mind to work while in Louisiana to devise a sure- 

 fire, "catch-alive" muskrat trap which will be described 

 later. 



As W. A. Gibbs, of Chester, Pa., has invented a line of 

 fur animal traps that have differed markedly from the 

 usual forms that have been used for hundreds of years, 

 and as these traps have become so popular in the Louisiana 

 marshes, the inventor was asked to describe his different 

 traps and their use. His "live trap" has been used with 

 some success in our experiments in taking muskrats alive 

 for study and breeding, and they were also used in the 

 Delacroix Island section when a restoration movement was 

 undertaken following the crevasse of 1927. While the Gibbs 

 "live trap" is far from being 100 per cent perfect, it did 

 catch the animals alive and unhurt, and in greater numbers 

 than did any of the other traps experimented with. 



Gibbs Live Trap in set position. 



Trap in sprung position. 



Mr. Gibbs' "no kit" trap, as I dubbed it following ex- 

 periments with models on the Louisiana marshes, and 

 which he calls his "adult muskrat trap," has in my estima- 



