TRAPPING AND HANDLING CANADA GEESE 



Harold C. Hanson 

 Assistant Game Special ist 



The ultimate success of wildlife research Is often dependent upon the ease with which large 

 numbers of Individuals of the species under study can be trapped and banded. Iftitll recently, the 

 lack of knowledge concerning adequate trap design and efficient trapping and handling techniques has 

 been an obstacle to research on the Canada goose, Branta canadenBis. Aside from the bandings of 

 large numbers of geese by Jack Miner and his sons at Klngsvllle, Ontario, by the Illinois Natural 

 History Survey at the Horseshoe Lake Game Refuge In southern Illinois, and by the U. S. Fish and 

 wildlife Service at the Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge In North Carolina, large-scale band- 

 ings of Canada geese with full powers of flight are not known to the writer. Because adequate traps 

 and trapping methods for Canada geese are not widely known, a resume of the trapping and handling 

 techniques as carried out at Horseshoe Lake may be of value to others who contemplate goose research 

 elsewhere In the country.* 



TRAPS 



The first successful trap constructed for use by the Illinois Natural History Survey In large- 

 scale trapping of geese was designed and built by two of Its employees, John M. Anderson and Jacob 

 H. Lemm, In 1941. In 1944, the writer built three sectlcn traps, two of which Incorporated the 

 drop-curtaln feature used by Anderson and Lemm. 



An linjortant feature of the first successful trap at Horseshoe Lake was two pipe-weighted cur- 

 tains of cord netting that, when dropped by means of a long trigger-rope leading to a blind, closed 

 off the two openings of a chlcken-wlre enclosure, fig. 1. This trap was semipermanent In construc- 

 tion. Iron fence posts spaced 8 to 10 feet apart and driven deep In the ground supported the woven- 

 wlre sides and the top netting, the netting resting on no. 12 support wires stretched across the top 

 of the trap. As the horizontal wires sustained a considerable weight, they were supported by Iron 

 posts Inside the trap, and their ends were brought to the ground outside the trap and fastened to 

 small logs burled several feet deep. Traps of this construction may vary In size, but those that 

 were found to be practicable at Horseshoe Lake were 40 x 50 feet. In general, the larger the trap 

 the larger the catches, but every Increase In the size of the trap creates greater construction 

 difficulties. 



As farming operations at Horseshoe Lake necessitated the rebuilding and razing of traps each 

 season, a laborious and time-consuming Job, a section trap 32 x 45 feet, consisting of eight 6- x 8- 

 foot wood frames, to which chicken wire Is permanently stapled, was put Into operation In 1944, fig. 

 2. Each of the two sides of this trap consists of four frames bolted together. The use of cord 

 netting Instead of chicken wire to roof over the tra{) eliminates the need for support posts Inside. 

 Each of the two drop curtains, when in set position, rests on three sets of triggers that are so 

 adjusted that all six triggers work simultaneously when the trigger rope or lead Is pulled. A trap 

 so constructed allows for great flexibility In field operations, since It can be easily taken down 



*The techniques described here were developed at the Horseshoe Lake Game Refuge. This state refuge is 

 under the management of the Illinois Department of Conservation. Assistance of this Department in several 

 phases of the work is gratefully acknowledged. 



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