What animal is the most distructive to cage traps

Over the years of capturing things in the USA raccoons seem to be the most damaging species to traps. Relentless chewers and also seem to pull in the most debris from the area around the trap that they can reach and pull in. Beavers in a cage trap are also quite strong at bending bits of trap wire and chewing what ever they can fit between those front teeth.

After those two the damage becomes much less. At least so far for me. The odd dog that is captured now and again will also chew and are the only things so far to roll a trap over while inside.

In South Africa civit cats, honey badgers, and Vervet monkeys are very distructive to cage traps, and the monkeys are expert at tripping them from the outside and then rolling them all around until the bait fall out. Baboons do not go inside but trip the door to shut when rolling them around and then tear them apart to get the food out. Same with a Hyena. They can chew the mesh open with little effort although there is often a bit of blood remaining so they chew in excess of the tissue strength of their gums and mouth.

I did see a Small brown hyena bite the sidewall of the land cruiser and puncture the tire, and I have seen a honey badger biting onto a back tire with the driver pulling away. The honey badger went around more than one complete reveloution before letting go. Both of these were due to blood from the bed of the truck dripping out onto the tire when we haul the game back to the skinning shed.

Coon seem to be the most destructive to cages for me with groundhogs coming in second. The ground hogs like to bend the doors on my larger cages and have broken the welds on the wire mesh I'm assuming from chewing on it.

I have noticed that the hyenas, civet cats and honey badgers are difficult in Wisconsin too. And we're hoping to keep the baboons away from Hazelhurst in August!

In my experience the worst animal on cage traps are a subspecies called headuptheirarsicus. One old critter decided to be helpful and bent the triggers down on the traps. Another critter on a payloader thought driving over them was a past time. Then there are the helpful armed ones, shooting other critters in the trap and blowing holes in the wires. The odd one likes to take them home and pretend they too are a trapper.
So the most destructive in my experience are the two legged primates that walk on their hind legs mostly The ones with male adornments are the hardest on the traps, the ones that wear exotic lures for perfume are harder on trapping things, as they tend to let the trapped animals loose, get bit by the Disney experience and then complain to the sheriff that it was not their fault.
The raccoon's larger relative in the bears, tend to make traps look like they went through lawnmowers, just for fun.

Ha Ha Paul! Thought maybe it would be of interest to hear about creatures from other locations.

Star Flakes, Yes indeed bears will demolish a live trap with food inside or a trapped animal inside. While working for the Washington Forest Protection Association we had research programs to study bear populations. I worked with a fella named Ralph Flowers at the time. We captured a lot of bears and had to repair a lot of feeding stations. They do not understand empty. There must be more food inside if they can only open it up. So they try and many times they did, breaking welds and tearing the metal open. Astonishing power those critters possess

Yeah, Thanks, Paul! I just sprayed beer everywhere, before realising I was reading one of Your come backs again!

Otter then coon then woodchuck IME

I've had raccoons tear apart cheap traps.

Armadillos are bulldozers and will give a slant door a good try. If the cage is going to fail it'll push the door, the lock bar will bow the top until it falls out the front. They can also damage the wire if they can hook a paw into it.
Beaver are no trouble IF the cage is appropriately sized to not allow them traction/leverage and/or set as a drowner set.
Coons are just plain trouble, give them something to do by tossing a golf ball or short piece of broom handle in there.
Skunks just make a mess of things pulling in dirt.

The human animal is by far the most destructive to cage traps! I am in charge of fixing cage traps for our company and the vast majority of the mangled cages come from technicians trying to force them into pickup trucks.

Build a cage trap that stands up to feral hogs, and you’ll know you built an indestructible trap

Thats the truth! Hogs are out of this world strong like its a super power!

x2 traprjohn