Remeniscient of Les Stroud “Survivorman” using this identical trap on one of his shows to totally squish a ratty looking ground squirrel. Can you say overkill? He then proceeded to hang it over a fire and try to scorch the hair off it. One of the funniest and grossest of his shows. :-)
Only seen bits and pieces of those shows, but one that I remember is getting a prairie dog by squashing it in a flat rock trap, and while cooking it over a fire, he mentions that it should be thoroughly cooked, since the critters are plague carriers.
What did he use for ground squirrel bait? I have an over-abundance of these critters. It could be good practice squishing a few of them with a trap like this.
I’m an Indian from a northeast tribe. We would make similar deadfalls on a much larger scale by splitting large logs and using that instead of rocks. You could get yourself a lot bigger meal than that ground squirrel with one of these traps in the right environment. However, I understand that for the Paiutes, food was scarce and they had a pretty rough life living out there in the desert.
I always laugh watching Les gnaw on those tiny squirrel bones for his breakfast, but the biggest kick I get is watching him fail to catch fish, I don’t think he ever caught one until well into the third season of Survivorman.