A way to reduce interference with Elliott traps

Elliott traps are widely used in Australia to capture small terrestrial mammals. However, in some situations non-target species disturb the traps, resulting in fewer traps being available for the target species. This situation occurred on Faure Island Wildlife Sanctuary (Western Australia) where boodies (burrowing bettongs) were disturbing the Elliott traps deployed to monitor populations of shark bay mice and western barred bandicoots. This note presents the method used to alleviate this problem on Faure Island but would be more widely applicable in other situations where Elliott traps are disturbed by animals other than the target species.