You need to add at least one trap before all the features of Trapper will function. This can be done either in the field, standing at the trap location; or by placing symbols on a map or satellite image on the Map page.
Adding traps in the field
When standing at the trap site, use your browser to find the Trapper site, log in, and go to the Field Recording page. The web page will probably indicate that you have no internet connection, in which case the Field Recording page will be the only one available to you.
When you first visit the Field Recording page you may see a dialogue box asking you to agree to share your device location with the app/website. You must agree to this, because location is fundamental to Trapper. Select ‘Always allow’, otherwise this pop-up will reappear continually because location is updated every few seconds!
Ensure that your phone’s GPS is switched on, and that it has acquired your location. If the phone fails to acquire your location even after a couple of minutes, you can either complete the entry at the same spot, or move to a nearby location where the GPS signal is better. The latter might be preferable, for instance, if the trap is just inside a woodland edge, but note that on future trap inspections you will always need to submit your data from the same spot in order to benefit from the full time-date-location ‘stamp’.
Go to the Field Recording page. Click Add New Beat, and give the beat a name. A beat is basically a group of traps, listed in the usual order of inspection, which you can change. Click Add, and fill in the details required in the Add Trap dialogue.
Your phone now has data temporarily stored, which needs to be uploaded to the cloud storage. You will notice that the Upload button has changed colour to indicate this. If you have internet connectivity (Wi-Fi or mobile data), you can press the button and the changes you have made will have immediate effect – for instance, new traps will be visible on the Maps page. Otherwise, the upload can wait until you next visit Trapper in a location where your phone has internet connectivity.
Adding traps on the Map page
Log in to Trapper as before, and select Map. By default, the map opens centred on the contact’s postcode. Once some traps have been added, the map will centre itself to show all the traps on the account, or the currently selected beat.
To zoom in or out, you can scroll with the mouse, use the +/- symbols on your keyboard, or move the +/- slider on the screen. Over the map, your cursor will be a hand symbol. Click anywhere and slide the mouse to move the centre of the map. (On a mobile device with a touch screen, you can also use the usual gestures to zoom or move the map.)
To create a new trap location on the Maps page, click on the yellow trap symbol at the top right, and drag it on to the map. You may find it helpful to switch on satellite imagery (top right of map screen) to see where you are placing the symbol. As you drag the trap symbol, a small cross appears to show exactly where the shield symbol is pointing. Once you have the position right, click on the symbol again, and fill in the trap details in the dialogue box that appears. Once you have saved these details, the trap symbol can no longer be moved.
Entering trap details
- The Trap Type drop-down will only contain trap models you have stated you use. If the one you want is not listed, you will need to add it in the Manage page.
- The Trap Name contains an automatically generated name. Accepting this speeds up the process of adding traps, but we recommend that at some stage you rename your traps to something you can recognise.
- The Maximum Inspection Range sets a limit on how close you must be to the trap before Trapper accepts that you are there and adds the full date/time/location stamp to the record. This is 50m by default, to allow for inaccuracies in the location system. You may change it to allow inspection at greater distances (for instance if a trap can reasonably be checked by viewing it through binoculars), but this will of course downgrade the value of the record as evidence, should you ever need it.
- Inspection Frequency. Trapper indicates which traps are currently due for inspection based on the value that is set here. Inspection frequency is dictated explicitly by primary legislation for snares and for some trapping circumstances (e.g. spring traps used to catch rabbits or hares); or in Spring Traps Approval Orders for some other traps (e.g. DOC traps). No inspection frequency is dictated for other traps or circumstances.
If the trap uses a decoy bird, then responsibility for the bird’s welfare is an obligation under the Animal Welfare Act. However, the Animal Welfare Act also applies to all captured animals, and here we get into uncharted territory. The prevailing view among veterinary experts seems to be that, if the trap is intended to hold alive, daily inspection is a reasonable minimum frequency. If the trap is intended to kill, there is much less agreement.
In Trapper, we have set daily inspection as the default for all traps, and this is used each day to indicate which traps need to be checked. Trapper allows you set a longer inspection interval for all traps of a particular model, or for individual traps; bear in mind that if you do this, you are entering uncharted waters legally.
If you actually check your traps more than once a day (e.g. if you happen to pass by and find a captured animal) there is no problem - Trapper will happily allow you to record the extra data.