I've never made one of these, but I just might do it before too long.
The trap illustrated is one basic form of trap used by the Maori. I understand that they may have used variants of this design, plus they may have used small pits where the hole is bigger than the opening so that the walls slope inwards...thus making it harder to climb out.
Anyway, here is the cunning spring up trap. You will note that the snare part of this trap is not a conventional noose with a sliding eye. It is more of a 'stirrup' of fiber which lifts the rat and holds him tightly against the two hoops. It might be typically set on a well-defined rat pathway, and the rat would dislodge the trigger lock stick as it went through the device...thus triggering it and getting caught.
I think this trigger device has a certain similarity to the trigger used in the Vietnamese rat trap....although the Vietnamese one does not have a noose...it has a bar which is spring-powered and which smacks down on the rat when it dislodges the trigger bar. Maybe I'll post a reference to this trap as well when I find it again.
This style of 'stirrup snare' would fit the occasions where the only available fiber is not suitable for making a conventional noose. A bit of strong vine or a flexible root would probably suffice. I'm guessing that the Maori would have used strips of NZ Flax (harakeke) leaf, or maybe bits of Cordyline (ti) leaf.
The trap illustrated is one basic form of trap used by the Maori. I understand that they may have used variants of this design, plus they may have used small pits where the hole is bigger than the opening so that the walls slope inwards...thus making it harder to climb out.
Anyway, here is the cunning spring up trap. You will note that the snare part of this trap is not a conventional noose with a sliding eye. It is more of a 'stirrup' of fiber which lifts the rat and holds him tightly against the two hoops. It might be typically set on a well-defined rat pathway, and the rat would dislodge the trigger lock stick as it went through the device...thus triggering it and getting caught.
I think this trigger device has a certain similarity to the trigger used in the Vietnamese rat trap....although the Vietnamese one does not have a noose...it has a bar which is spring-powered and which smacks down on the rat when it dislodges the trigger bar. Maybe I'll post a reference to this trap as well when I find it again.
This style of 'stirrup snare' would fit the occasions where the only available fiber is not suitable for making a conventional noose. A bit of strong vine or a flexible root would probably suffice. I'm guessing that the Maori would have used strips of NZ Flax (harakeke) leaf, or maybe bits of Cordyline (ti) leaf.
