Live-trap project 187properly. He then introduced the ‘Christopher’ live-trap, his own design, and explained
to us the type of trap this was and how it worked (see Fig. 9.12).
The Christopher live-trap catches alive whatever animal enters it. This animal can
then be killed or released. The trap works as follows: the heavy door is held up by stout
wire which runs down to a baited toggle inside the trap; when the animal touches the
bait the door comes down, trapping it. It is simple and, if the trap is well constructed,
effective. In fact, although new to us at Sonso, Chris had already made six such traps and
placed them near farmers’ fields in the vicinity of Masindi.
We from BFP listened with rapt attention. Could this be an answer to the problem of
chimpanzees getting caught and injured in leg-hold traps?
After his talk, Chris gave us a demonstration. The trap was baited with green bananas
(maize is also sometimes used) and we retired to the banda. Within 15 min we heard the
trap door fall. Going over to the trap we found a baboon inside it, which we released by
one man standing on top of the trap roof and lifting the door. This trap certainly seemed
to work.
The farmers were universally enthusiastic and wanted such traps to put around their
fields. The problem was that the poles were not freely available, they were quite expen-
sive to buy and it would be illegal to go into the forest and cut them. Also there was the
cost of the nails and the wire mesh which formed the trap roof. After the meeting broke
up and the farmers went back to their homes, Chris stayed at camp and we had a
discussion with him about whether we could put this trap to use to save chimpanzees
Fig 9.12: Byarugaba with demonstration live-trap at Sonso (photo: V.R.).