The Ethics of work with wildlife...

[Ilija Dukovski]

Apropo recent discussion on the ethics of wildlife photography vs. research methods:
http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=33031
I'd like to share with you recent disturbing news published in the April 16 issue of Nature magazine:
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090415/full/458819f.html

In short, a wild Jaguar was captured and released with a radio collar by a team
from the Arizona Game and Fish Dept.
This is the ONLY identified wild Jaguar in the US.
The Jaguar later become ill and was recaptured and killed on March 2nd.
The team stated that the capture was inadvertent.
A further investigation however revealed that the Jaguar was baited with jaguar female scat.

Being a professional scientist, I must admit that ethics concerns, when it comes to wildlife photography,
do not come even close to cases like this...

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Ilija, the article is only available for subscribers.

[Ilija Dukovski]

Yes, I know Axel. That's why I wrote a short summary.
The actuall article is just a news brief not much more than
what I wrote. I included the link only for reference purposes,
Nature is available in many US public libraries and I believe in
most academic libraries all over the world.
If you don't have subscription you can easily find it in one.

Cheers,

[Ilija Dukovski]

OK here's a bit more info from the AZGFD:
http://www.azgfd.gov/w_c/jaguar/MachoB.shtml

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Thanks for the other link!

[Sabyasachi Patra]

I know of cases in India where an adult tiger has died due to over dose during tranquilization. I was under the impression that such a thing could not happen in US due to well established processes and knowledgeable field biologists. It is sad that such a thing has happened.