Leg-hold trapping foxes (Vulpes vulpes) in Doñana National Park

Abstract

This paper reports on the performances of padded leg-hold traps for capturing and holding red foxes at Donana National Park in Southwest Spain. Performance includes efficiency, failure, set quality, attractivity, boldness, and selectivity of five different trap sets: baited and blind sets, each with and without prebaiting, and dirt hole sets. A total of 2,378 trap-nights were activated between January 1990 and June 1992. Seventy three red foxes were captured. Prebaited sets were, on average, four times more efficient than nonprebaited ones. Prebaiting improves set quality and boldness and doubles trap-set selectivity. Dirt hole set performance felled between prebaited and non prebaited groups. Nontarget species caught are listed. We also examined red fox to evaluate injuries. No trap set type used in the present study showed any selectivity towards one sex. Based on our results we suggest one possible trap set sequence when trapping red foxes in protected areas or, in areas like in Donana, when there are nontarget species, whose accidental capture must be avoided altogether