SMALL MAMMAL TRAPPING - TRAINING

On Thursday night Clare Rawcliffe from the STyneside Countryside Team met with the Group at Whitburn Coastal Park to give us some training on trapping small mammals. First we familiarised ourselves with the traps themselves, how to put them together, how to set them, how to release etc. Then we went over what type of bedding material to use, and what food to use as bait. Then we had a brief session on what species were likely to be caught and how to identify them. We were then shown the correct way to handle the creatures before finally setting them free. After the training we took ten traps out to the mound and baited them before placing them in several promising looking areas. The plan was to pre-bait the traps (ie put food in them but not set them to trap) for a couple of nights so the mammals can get used to them and then properly set them on the Saturday night and check if anything had been caught on the Sunday morning. Roll on Sunday morning!