2011 Volume 51 Issue 2 Pages 257-263
We developed a procedure to safely handle raccoons trapped by the Egg Trap™. We designed two types of collecting boxes, both of which had a dark color within in order that trapped raccoons would move into the box spontaneously. Type A was a plastic dust box sprayed in black. Type B was a cage trap covered with a black shade. We trapped 60 raccoons (24 males, 8 pregnant females, 28 non-pregnant females) with the Egg Trap™. Eight raccoons were collected by the Type A box, and 52 raccoons were collected by the Type B box. We handled all trapped raccoons safely. All raccoons except for three were collected smoothly within 60 seconds. The mean time (±SD) of collecting the raccoons (n=57) was 14.5 (±11.1) seconds. There were no significant differences in the time of collecting between type A and B, between trapping with one hand or two, and between sexes. These results suggested that these collecting boxes were applicable for raccoons trapped by the Egg Trap™ under various conditions, and that the collecting box was an appropriate size and an appropriate inner color as a hiding place for raccoons.
