Biologists grapple with handling wildlife for research

Handling wildlife is often a critical part in wildlife research. Biologists can’t collar a deer or radio tag a bird without it. But increasingly, researchers are seeing consequences to handling wildlife and are looking for less invasive alternatives. “An individual animal is never better off because we trapped it or caught it or tagged it,” Steven Cooke, a biologist at Canada’s Carleton University, told the Washington Post, in an article that looks at the consequences of capturing animals for research “But the knowledge gained from that individual can hopefully be useful for informing how to better manage, conserve, protect and restore populations and species.”

Read more in the Washington Post.