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When the carcass of a domestic animal, deer, or other prey found in a control area shows unmistakably that a mountain-lion did the killing, at least three traps should be set around it, each 15 to 20 inches away. When the carcass is found lying on its side (Fig. 2.) one trap should be set, as later described, between the fore and hind legs, another near the rump, and a third near the back and parallel with the loin. These traps constitute a carcass set and require no lure other than the carcass. Frequently it is well to set a fourth trap 6 to 8 feet away if tracks show the exact route taken by the lion in approaching or leaving the carcass.

Caution.—Trappers, especially when using the No. 4½ trap, should take every needed precaution to safeguard livestock and valuable or harmless wild animals; and, where necessary, should post signs to warn human beings.

B3463M

Figure 2.—Quarry of mountain-lion. A carcass found on its side, as illustrated, furnishes an excellent opportunity for making a carcass set of three or more traps, 15 to 20 inches away

Use of Lures

Traps set along a trail and near an obstruction meant to divert the mountain-lion close to a scratch hill, are only partly successful. The trapper may, however, take advantage of the mountain-lion's keen sense of smell by dropping a few drops of oil of catnip in the center of the undisturbed scratch hill, as a lure.

Why catnip is so attractive to members of the feline family is not yet fully known. Experiments have indicated that it produces sexual excitation and also that it has a soothing effect on the nervous system, similar to that of opiates on man. In some of the larger circuses catnip has been used for years in gentling animals of the cat family. The use of catnip oil in this country to lure members of this family within trapping distance has been remarkably effective.

When pure catnip oil is obtainable it should be used, diluted with pure petrolatum, in the proportion of 40 drops of the catnip oil to 2 ounces of petrolatum. A catnip lure so placed that it will last a long time has been experimented with by members of the Provincial Game Conservation Board of British Columbia, and later by the writer in the United States. Prepared as follows, it promises to increase the effectiveness of trapping in mountain-lion control:

Figure 3.—A 2-trap "blind" set for mountain-lions. In the saddle of a divide the traps are placed in the trail where it narrows. A small stick or other obstruction should be put between the traps and one at either approach, to make the lion step into one of the traps rather than between or over them

The petrolatum-diluted catnip oil is smeared thinly over a piece of cotton batting about 8 inches square, and this is covered with another piece of the same size. The catnip-oil sandwich thus made is placed on an ordinary tin pie plate, brown in color, so that the bottom will be inconspicuous against the bark of a tree. Two or three feet from the ground a tree is blazed to make the sap flow, the cut being made in the shape of the plate. The plate is spiked over this blaze, with the batting next to the tree so that the