Some moose just can't handle Sweden

Comment:....Another article, which I can only access the first page of, appears to be a survey of such traps throughout Africa. http://www.jstor.org/pss/40446990.
It opens with:
“The trap we are here concerned with is mainly used for elephant and hippopotamus, but even for rhinoceros, buffalo, antelopes and crocodile. The spear employed is suspended from a tree-branch, or, if there is not a suitable one at hand, from a pole or the like fixed up horizontally between two trees in such a way that the spear, weighted with a heavy log, is placed directly above the path by which the quarry is expected to come along. Where no suitable trees are available, it will be necessary to plant an upright post on either side of the game-path, the harpoon then being suspended in the way indicated. The idea is that this is to strike the head or neck of the animal that passes below it and springs the trap, when death soon results. In cases where the spear only strikes the back (the spine expected), it will take some time until there has been sufficient loss of blood to cause the collapse of the animal. This may, however, take place only after a very protracted interval, and then eventually give rise to litigation”

halfwise wrote:How is the trap to be sprung?  That's the interesting part to me.

For instance, in his book The power of animals: an ethnography, Brian Morris describes such traps in Malawi:
“Mchera (lao nyemba). This is the falling spear trap … widely used in the past to kill elephant, hyena, hippopotamus and leopard. It consisted of a beam of wood up to two metres long, armed with an iron spike or spear, which was usually poisoned. The beam was suspended in an overhanging position over the animal track, especially near paths leading to watering places. The beam was held by a strong cord over a forked pole, the cord being attached to a trip mechanism at ground level. When released by the passing mammal, the weighted spear forcefully penetrated the animal’s spine. Both Livingstone and Kirk mention that the banks of the Shire River in the middle of the nineteenth century were ‘dotted’ with this kind of trap, especially during the dry season. Elephant and hippopotamus were the main mammals trapped, animals which not only had high value as meat and for their skins and ivory, but tended to create havoc in the dimba gardens of the local people.”