Traps in a genuine emergency: law, ethics and realistic chances of success

Small animals such as hares, rabbits or squirrels do not move at random. They use the same paths again and again between their hiding place, their feeding spots and water. These paths are called runs. In grass you see them as a narrow, flattened trail, in mud as a line of tracks, and in snow especially clearly.

A trap only catches if an animal passes right by it. That is why reading signs matters more than building the trap itself. Best are bottlenecks where the run passes between bushes, rocks or under a trunk: there the animal almost has to step in the same spot.

Animals are cautious. If it smells of people or freshly cut wood, or the path has suddenly changed, they avoid it. So you work with little disturbance, with material that is already lying there, and with gloves or soil-rubbed hands.

The most important decision is made before the first trap: is this really an emergency in which life is at stake and no rescue is coming? Someone who is hungry after a day without food is not in danger of their life. As long as the emergency call, signals, water, shelter and warmth are not secured, every minute spent on traps is badly invested.

The second question is the energy balance. Building, searching and checking cost strength and body heat. A rare catch of a lean small animal often brings in less than you used. Foraging plants you know for certain or fishing in a stream or lake is often more productive. Traps make sense when they stand close to camp and work in the background while you save your strength.

The third rule is order: few traps, each with a number, each marked, each in a list with a sketch. Only then will you find all of them again, check them reliably and dismantle them completely at the end.

Traps do not distinguish who walks into them. A snare also catches cats and dogs, a deadfall can break a child's fingers. That is why traps never belong by paths, camps, huts, pastures or places where people move about. Children do not build traps and are told exactly which areas are off-limits.

Legally the situation is clear: in Germany and Austria trapping without hunting rights is poaching and therefore a criminal offence. In Germany the Federal Hunting Act bans snares even for hunters; in Austria the state hunting laws are similarly strict. Whether a genuine emergency existed in a particular case is examined afterwards by the authorities and courts – when in doubt the ban applies.

Then there is animal welfare: anyone who causes an animal unnecessarily long suffering commits an offence. Anyone who sets traps must check them at least daily, kill caught animals at once and safely, and release non-target animals. Traps for larger animals, leghold traps, spear and spring traps, poison or explosives are off-limits – they have no place in any emergency either.

Traps can only make sense in a long emergency far from any help, when basic needs are covered, clear small-game signs can be seen near the camp and you can check every day. Then they supplement foraging and fishing.

They make no sense in short emergencies, which in Central Europe almost always end with rescue after hours or a few days. Anyone who is weak, chilled or injured should also save their strength for warmth, water and signals. And traps for practice or as a hobby are not an option – practice is only possible with harmless models without bait at home.

Small game such as rabbits is very lean. Anyone who lives almost only on lean meat for a long time does not feel properly full and can become ill, because fat and carbohydrates are missing. Trapping alone is therefore not a way to live.

Knowledge of runs, tracks and animal behaviour is valuable even without traps: it shows you water points, helps you find your way and makes you a more attentive observer. The entries on track patterns, feeding signs and habitats go deeper into this.

Military survival manuals such as the US Army's FM 3-05.70 cover traps in detail – but always as a means for emergencies. They also say that many traps in good places, checked regularly, are the precondition for success, and that success is still never guaranteed.