Emerging and evolving dilemmas in wildlife research

The importance of wildlife research to the conservation and management of animals and their ecosystems is undeniable. However, the use of animals in wildlife research, like their use in other research fields (e.g. laboratory-based studies focused on medical research), is not without contention. For example, the efficacy and animal welfare impacts of marking methods such as toe clipping (see the discussion in Chapter 8) and branding, continue to be debated, sometimes to the point of halting conservation research (McMahon et al. 2006). Similarly, research on lethal animal control methods continue to be scrutinised intensely (see discussions in van Eeden et al. 2017, 2020) and are often the subject of traditional and social media interest (e.g. Pickering and Norman 2020). These aspects of wildlife research, and others, have been discussed relatively comprehensively elsewhere (e.g. McMahon et al. 2006; van Eeden et al. 2017, 2020). This chapter focuses on selected issues relevant to the decision making of animal ethics committees (AECs and wildlife researchers). Some are emerging issues (e.g. social media) that have received little attention to date and are not well explored in the literature.