I presume that all readers of ecolog-l are concerned about the humane treatment of animals, and we all recognize that the standards for what is considered humane-treatment are evolving in the profession of ecology, as they are in society generally. As a profession that includes many scientists whose research and teaching activities involve doing things that directly affect the health and welfare of animals, we have an obligation to be reflective about what we do. I offer this comment in that spirit.
In the most recent (April 2013) issue of Frontiers in Ecology & the Environment, the fine paper by Hampton et al. (Big Data & the Future of Ecology) has an image (Figure 3a) of a field technician weighing a small rodent by pinching the base of its tail to a pesola scale and suspending the animal head down. This would appear likely to be stressful, and result in a small risk of injury or escape (if the animal struggles), and yet provide little more accuracy as a method of weighing than if the animal was kept in a holding bag, weighed, and the weight of the bag subtracted out. I doubt my IACUC would approve of clamping an animal directly to a scale, given that there is a safe, less-stressful, cheap, and equally accurate alternative. Recently while watching a rerun of the public-television program NOVA, my family and I saw an eminent ecologist weigh a clearly struggling lizard in the same fashion (clamping the pesola directly to the animal's body). It is important that in disseminating what we do, we model to the public the most humane, gentle and safe methods for capturing and handling animals. We certainly do not want to be confused, and cannot afford to be confused, with the rough capture and handling methods associated with showmen such as 'Crocodile Hunter' Steve Irwin. Tom Langen Associate Professor Departments of Biology & Psychology Clarkson University Box 5805, Clarkson U., Potsdam NY 13699-5805 Phone: 315 268 7933, Fax: 315 268 7118 www.clarkson.edu/~tlangen <http://www.clarkson.edu/~tlangen>
