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Monday, December 07, 2009

The wrong sort of mole

This is no doubt an important subject it was just not the sort of mole I had expected to see referred to on a Government website. It does qualify though as the freedom of information request of the month:

Request for Information – reference 3725

Thank you for your request which was received by the Assembly Government on 13 October 2009. You asked for information regarding any letters emails etc. connecting these names below or anything similar regarding the Mole:
• British guild of molecatchers
• mole catching
• mole trap use
• spring traps
• daily checking of mole traps
• Jeff Nicholls re mole catcher
• mole survey
The Welsh Assembly Government has no information on the British Guild of Mole catchers. However there is information available on the Internet - http://www.guildofbritishmolecatchers.co.uk/.

Mole Catching – refer to attached advisory leaflet WM03.

Mole trap use – refer to attached advisory leaflet WM03.

Spring traps – see attached The Spring Traps Approval Order 1995. The Welsh Assembly Government is currently seeking approval for the authorisation of seven new named traps: the Kania Trap 2500, the Solway Spring Trap Mk4, the Solway Spring Trap Mk6, the Nooski Trap, the DOC 150 (Department of Conservation, New Zealand), the DOC 200 and the DOC 250.

Daily checking of mole traps – refer to attached advisory leaflet.

Jeff Nicholls re mole catcher - the Welsh Assembly Government has no information on the Jeff Nicholls. However there is information available on the Internet – http://www.molecatcher.co.uk/.

Mole survey - the Welsh Assembly Government not aware of any official mole surveys. Several surveys record presence of moles but only the Winter Mammal Monitoring Survey is specifically designed to collect mammal data. In others like the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) observers note what they happen to see whilst collecting bird data. The Winter Mammal Monitoring data has only 3 years of data and this is too short to carry out a trend analysis – annual data for another 5 years is required, before robust conclusions can be made about the mole population. BBS shows a significant upward trend in the mole population but the Waterways Breeding Bird Survey shows no significant trend. Estimated mole population – UK 31,000,000; Wales 3,250,000 (JNCC UK Mammals: Species Status and Population Trends (2005)
Comments:
Sounds like a Jasper Carrott sketch.

If it's any use, I've found that the Mk 4 Fenn Trap is very useful against rats.
 
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