EVALUATION OF THE BIONIC® TRAP TO QUICKLY KILL FISHER (MARTES PENNANTI) IN SIMULATED NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS

The Bionic® trap equipped with a 10 cm aperture bait cone and cocked to eight notches quickly killed nine of nine fishers (Martes pennanti) in simulated natural conditions. Mean (±SE) estimated times to loss of consciousness and heartbeat were ≤55 sec and 305 (±8) sec, respectively, after firing the trap. This study confirmed that the Bionic® trap can be expected to render ≥70% of captured fishers irreversibly unconscious in ≤3 min (P < 0.05).