Further Modifications to Existing Brush Tailed Possum Traps

We are continuing to process our initial data which is now starting to show consistency.  On the first farm deploymeent site, which has been running for ninety days we are seeing extended possum interaction at the sound lure location, including possums interacting directly with the sound lure speaker itself.  We have traditional bait traps at this location, the possums are appearing to arrive at the site and show interest in the sound lure, while not interacting with the trap that is present.  At the non-sound lure location we are seeing an occassional possum in the area but not extended actvity.   It should also be noted again

In the next week or so we will be changing our set-up (sound lure) at this location considerably.   In the second farm deployment which has been running even more considerably in favour of the sound lure location (which as been as high as ten to twelve times more activations and eight times the number of possums) in a recent three day period we saw no activations in the non sound lure locatiom, however at the sound lure location we saw twelve possums, a rat and a feral cat - all of which showed interest or interacted with the sound lure.  As shown in the photo one possum went to the extent of knocking the solar panel/computer off the box and picked up the speaker in its teeth and appeared to bite it.

There is clear, sustained evidence that the sound lure is attracting possums and they are interacting directly with the source of the sound, which is in this case the speaker.

We believe that by modifying an existing mechanical trap it will act as a cone to increase the sound and also cause the Possum to interact directly with the trap and the speaker which can only be accessed by the possum triggering the mechanism that sets the trap from the front.  This is potentially a significant development in our research.   We do need to address the connections between the solar panels and the IP rated box which contains the speaker as we are seeing possums interacting with this part of the unit but we have been looking into and using some options which we are confident of resolving at this stage.

Updated Details of Possum Trap

Left: A Timms Possum Trap, modified with the speaker shown in the center position at the back.  The solar panel and unit can be placed behind the unit, the bar which is relased by the spring is placed before the speaker, so the possum must interact with the bar to be able to gain access to the speaker.

We have had evidence of Possums interacting around the trap but not entering the trap (however the same possums can clearly be clearly seen interacting directly with the speaker).    This change in our set up should do the following - the sound coming from the unit should be considerable raised by the shape of the trap, as it creates a significant echo.   

There is significant poor weather this week.   Once this weather is cleared we will be deploying the adapated Timms trap at all of our primary locations as we believe that we should see significant results with the modified set up.