Trapspringer - [Fearsome Critter]

•About this Critter: A nocturnal pest with strange spring-like legs; it loves setting off hunters traps overnight. - Seen out of the corner of your eye, but never captured - It is claimed that it lives in the dens of furrbearing animals, who bring it food for protection.

•History: Yet another fearsome critter from ArtChilds "YEARNS OF THE BIG WOODS” [1925] – The article goes as follows:

" If you think the North Woods are just a place for Summertime fishing parties, you’re wrong. In the Wintertime there’s a business going on all the time—fur trapping.
    Many of the furs for our coats, caps and gloves come from animals trapped in this part of the country by men who have worked there as long as the old guides and they have many strange stories and legends that they spread among themselves.
    Among these is the tale of the trapspringer.
    He’s the pest of all the trappers, and they never can catch him, because he comes out only at night and when he is sure the trapper is nowhere near. Some of the old trappers claim to have seen him, and they declare that he’s a queer little creature with spring-like legs. With these legs he can spring down on a trap and set it off and then bound away again.
    “The trapspringer has been here!” exclaims the trapper when he comes to a trap that has been set off and finds no game in it.
    It is claimed that this little creature lives in the den of furrbearing animals and they bring him food in return for the protection he gives them."

--in a nutshell, it's a critter that would have been talked about between hunters and guides or used as an expression of disappointment to their traps going off at night but not catching anything. (its quite similar in concept to the bait robbers.) essentially its a pixie blamed for the loss. (it could be seen as a precursor or relative to aviation gremlins.)

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