On North Woods Law, they have a segment about where they trap bears with foot hold traps, place radio collars on them (after tranquilizing, of course), and then release them (after injecting them with a drug to neutralize the tranquilizer).
Is there anything special about the traps they use so the bear isn’t hurt or injured by the, (but is held securely enough to be tranquilized with a pole-mounted injector?
A quick web search shows some traps are made with straight padded jaws, and that using the proper size trap reduces the risk of injury, but it seems like the animal would still suffer enough injury to interfere with their normal lives.
Most collaring of bears is done during hibernation and when there is need to trap a bear any other time a live trap is used.
a nuisance bear that is to be destroyed will be live trapped and if that becomes difficult as animals become trap shy, they are mostly shot.
I have never seen a leg hold bear trap in use.
Did the show just make reference or was there footage of a bear in a leg hold??
If they are using a foot hold trap the chances are they are within a minute or two of the trap when it goes off. Animals caught in leg hold traps will severely injure themselves if left unattended. They may have come up with something I am not aware of, in that case I have no idea.
Another episode showed them tagging cubs in hibernation, and one of the animals they collared this time was actually one they’d checked as a cub.
Yeah, the show includes them in actual traps. The footage doesn’t show the trap very closely, which is why I’m curious. It’s North Woods Law season 3, episode 3 ‘24 hours on the job’.
Just reviewed the footage and the audio describes it as a “foot snare”. It’s rather unrestrictive as one captured bear is able to climb 3-4 feet up a tree when they arrive.
They place the trap in the tree, so as to make it safer to humans. It reduces the risk of a human just coming along in the dark and getting stuck , who’s climbing trees in the dark.
They really do expect the animal will not be harmed. The satellite alert is required to reduce the stress… to get to the animal before it becomes too desperate.
See