Tagging Animals: Helpful or Harmful?

Many studies involving wild animals require biologists to get very close to them. Biologists will capture and tag animals for research purposes. What they may not realize is how this will impact the animal once it is released.

Wing tag Great Frigatebird by Sabine’s Sunbird under CC by 2.o 

How do we benefit from tagging?

Tagging allows to gain knowledge about animal populations and the way they behave. Being able to track animals gives humans the ability to understand them and what they do in their daily lives. Without this information we would be blind to so many important events such species extinction or migration. Technology has had such a positive impact on ecological research, so why not jump on board?

How is tagging harmful?

One of the many reasons why tagging animals can be harmful is the misuse of these tags by people who are not research scientists. In India, poachers are taking advantage of the tags that have been put on wild Bengal tigers. By hacking the GPS locations of these collar tags, poachers are able to easily find Bengal tigers and kill them. Bengal tigers are a very endangered species. There are only 2,500 Bengal tigers left in the wild to date.  Poaching has become a serious problem for these tigers and could potentially cause them to go extinct. However, Bengal tigers are not the only species that are negatively impacted by tagging.

 

Untitled by The Amur Tiger progamme under CC by 2.o

A resent study on the king penguin showed that flipper bands may be harmful. Researchers came to the conclusion that king penguins who were wearing these flipper bands had fewer chicks than those who were not. They also discovered that penguins wearing these bands were more likely to die. There are many possibilities as to why these flipper bands are harmful to king penguins. Perhaps these flipper bands impact the way in which the king penguins swim, making them more venerable to predation. Maybe these tags influence the way these penguins interact with each other. Females may not be attracted to males that have these flipper bands or vise versa. Tagging can also be utilized for other purposes besides just tracking animals.

“Single King Penguin” by Brian Gratwicke under CC by 2.o

So shocking!

Wild animal tagging can be used as a means of control over population distribution. There have been cases in which electric collars have been used on wild gray wolves to prevent them from migrating and hunting in certain areas. This technique is mainly used to deter these wolves from killing and eating livestock. Many people believe that shocking wolves is a great way to teach them to avoid livestock pastures.

Untitled by National Park Services under CC by 2.o

Are there benefits to tagging?

I previously mentioned some of the research benefits to tagging wild animals. Tagging wild animals can give biologists more incite on animal behavior such as hunting patterns and migration patterns. Biologists can use this information to better understand the lives of animals. Information that is gathered through tagging can also help us to improve conservation efforts and make them more effective. I definitely think that there are both pros and cons to wild animal tagging. However, when biologists do tag animals, it is important for them to think about animal welfare and use the least invasive methods as possible.