the great rodent disaster of 1992
we were conducting a small animals survey (mice, voles, shrews etc.) on four sites each between 12 and 25 miles apart, using live traps, during winter.
we placed the traps at one site before moving to the next and placing more, over all four sites. the only problem with live traps, especially during the winter is that you should only leave them for 2 hours with a maximum of four, even with food inside (the bait).
unfortunately after setting the last trap and starting back to check the first we skidded off the road into a ditch taking a wheel off the minibus in the process. nobody had a mobile phone at the time.
by the time we were out of the ditch and in alternative transport 6 hours had passed since laying the first trap, and it took another 3 hours to go round them all.
during that time over 200 small innocent wood mice, field mice, shrews and voles all either starved or froze in their galvanised steel coffins.
it wasnt a day to be proud off