Trapping non-breeding Red Knot Calidris canutus with a gunpowder-propelled net-gun
Info
Pages
12 – 17
Published
1 June 15
Authors
Christophe Buidin, Yann Rochepault, Yves Aubry
DOI
10.18194/ws.00007
Correspondence
Yves Aubry
Yves.aubry@ec.gc.ca
Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment Canada, 801-1550, avenue d’Estimauville, Quebec (Quebec) Canada G1J 0C3
Files
Public Files
We describe the use of a gunpowder-propelled net-gun (Coda Enterprises, Mesa, Arizona, USA) to capture Red Knots Calidris canutus and other shorebirds on the Mingan Archipelago in the Gulf of St Lawrence, Canada. Although in other studies such net-guns have led to casualties, mainly as a result of projectiles hitting birds, we had none. We attribute this to the steps we took, including practice-firing, to ensure that no birds were in the direct line of fire of any projectile.