IMPORTANCE OF WILDLIFE RESEARCH

The impact of humankind on biodiversity is impossible to ignore. In May 2019, the United Nations published their Global Assessment Report1, which revealed that at least one million species worldwide are at risk of extinction within the next few decades and that radical action is necessary to conserve Earth’s ecosystems. To successfully inform conservation priorities and design conservation measures, it is necessary to understand the biology of wildlife species, assess the impact of biodiversity loss, and monitor changes in species communities.

HOW MANY ANIMALS ARE BEING USED IN WILDLIFE RESEARCH?

In the EU alone, more than half a million animals are used each year for research purposes related to ethology, animal behaviour, animal biology, or species preservation2. However, these statistics only account for research conducted on vertebrate species,  cephalopods, and decapod crustaceans.

WHAT TYPES OF RESEARCH METHODS ARE BEING IMPLEMENTED?

Broadly, we can distinguish three types of research methods:

  1. Lethal methods – involving the “sacrifice” of the animal.
  2. Invasive methods – defined as those that affect the physical integrity of the animal3, such as blood and tissue sampling or marking through mutilation (e.g., toe-clipping).
  3. Non-invasive methods – for example, using shed feathers, buccal swabs or faeces.

A review published in 20194 revealed that in wildlife genetics studies, lethal and invasive methods are still the most prevalent, despite the availability of non-invasive techniques:

invasive_genetics
Proportion of identified relevant studies on genetics in amphibians, birds, carnivores, molluscs and rodents published in 2017-2018. Lethal and invasive methods of DNA collection are in red tones, non-invasive in blue tones, grey symbolizes that both invasive and non-invasive methods were used for DNA collection. Except for studies on carnivores, majority of studies used a lethal or an invasive genetic sampling technique. Source: Zemanova 2019.