By: Mark Tyson, M.S.
(A 8 foot guillotine style gate placed on a corral trap. Photo Credit: Dr. Billy Higginbotham)
Trapping wild pigs is both an art and a science; when implemented properly it can be highly effective. Yet many who set out to capture wild pigs face a number of challenges including competing with native food resources, non-target interactions within the trap, and trap aversion by wild pigs. The importance of planning cannot be understated in the trapping process. Planning often brings about questions. Questions like “how wide should a corral trap gate be?”. Commonly the old adage “bigger is better” is applied to trap gate width, yet new research out of central Texas leads me to say smaller may be smarter in some cases.
Incidental observations suggest that adult wild pigs show aversion to trap entries where they have to come into contact with the trap gate to enter. Land managers have noticed this and as time has progressed so has the width of corral trap gates. A variety of 6 and 8 foot wide trap gates are commercially available on the market today, based on the thought that wider must be better. Seeking to prove this thought, researchers from Texas A&M University set out to determine if gate width impacted corral trap entry by wild pigs.
Hypothesizing that wild pigs would habituate better to corral traps with wider gate openings, Metcalf et al. (2014) tested 3, 4, 5, and 6 foot wide gates. Due to limitations two gate widths were tested at each of the two corral trap sites. Entries per gate width were observed over a 3-month period, using video from trail cameras placed at the trap sites. During the study a total of 191 video clips of pigs entering the trap were captured.
Analysis and statistical testing of the data collected revealed no significant impact of gate width on entry for either gender among both adults and juvenile wild pigs (Metcalf et al . 2014). So what does this mean and why is it important? It means you have options! Now that it has been shown that bigger is not necessarily better, one thing is for sure bigger is heavier and often more expensive! If you can accomplish the same results with a 3 foot wide gate that you can with a 6 foot wide gate which one would you want to purchase/build, load, unload, deploy and haul away afterward? My money and my muscles are much more inclined towards a 3 foot gate!
(A 3 foot guillotine gate can be easily constructed and deployed by one individual)
I’ve heard it said that the best trap gate to use is the one that works best for you. That’s exactly what the researchers imply in their article as well. According to Metcalf et al. (2014) this research indicates that land managers can create trap gate openings tailored to their individual needs and situations. In a scenario where multiple corral traps are deployed on a property, it may be more cost effective to use smaller gates. Alternatively if a wider gate is needed at a particular trap site to accommodate a large sounder then it should be used. It is important to note that gate width may influence the amount of time it takes pigs to acclimate to entering the trap enclosure. Regardless of the gate width you select I would highly suggest the use of a guillotine style gate. My blog article The Best Choice for a Corral Trap Gate provides additional detail on why I feel this gate style is best.
So now that I have shed some new light on the “Great Gate Debate” it is important to point out that many additional challenges still face land managers using corral traps. Further research on corral traps is needed to identify techniques and modifications that can improve trapping success. You can learn more about wild pigs and their management by going to our website Coping with Feral Hogs.
The hyper-linked resource document below will provide you with quick access to many of our online feral hog resources including publications, fact sheets and videos.
Literature Cited
Metcalf, E. M., I . D. Parker, R. R. Lopez, B. Higginbotham, D. S. Davis and J. R. Gersbach. 2014. Impact of gate width of corral traps in potential wild pig trapping success. Wildlife Society Bulletin 38:892-895.