Improvements of the Alpine Capture Systems Cloth Trap for capturing deer

Abstract

A total of 143 sika deer was captured using the Alpine Capture Systems cloth trap (Alpine Deer Group Ltd., New Zealand) on Nakanoshima Island, Hokkaido, between March 1992 and February 2000. When we changed the trigger type of the trap from a hand-pulled single trigger to remote-controlled double triggers, number of deer that escape from the trap decreased due to reduction of wariness among the deer and reduction in the lapse time to close the trap. The capturing efficiency of the trap improved from about 1.1 to 3.5 deer per trial.