Capturing animals encompasses methodological approaches used to physically restrain or confine individual organisms or groups for study, monitoring, or management. Techniques include passive methods such as live traps, mist nets, pitfall traps, and funnel traps, and active methods such as hand capture, noosing, or net-gunning, each selected based on target species’ behavior, size, and habitat. Method design emphasizes minimizing stress, injury, and mortality, adhering to ethical and legal standards, and often incorporates species-specific baiting, timing, and placement strategies. Capture methods are integral to mark–recapture studies, population estimation, health assessments, telemetry deployment, and translocation or removal programs.
Imagine you're driving down a winding road when you spot an injured possum. Your instincts might tell you to hit the brakes, check what's wrong and bundle it into your car. Research shows many of us want to help wild animals ...
Ecology
5 hours ago
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It's 5 a.m. when we crawl out of our tents. The catbirds are calling and the night sky is fading to dawn as we prepare to head into the wilderness. We're surrounded by the towering eucalypts of southeast Queensland in search ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 21, 2026
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5
On a pristine Rhode Island beach teeming with noisy seabirds, a group of biologists armed with nets sneak up on a pair of American oystercatcher chicks.
Ecology
Jul 20, 2026
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6
In a new study led by University of Delaware researchers Aaron Carlisle and Ed Hale, researchers point to concerns in the international trade of sand tiger sharks, a critically endangered shark species globally, for display ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 9, 2026
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153
Research by Oregon State University biologists suggests that toxic air stemming from wildfires won't necessarily prompt animals to flee in search of better breathing conditions. The study of American robins led by OSU's Jamie ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 8, 2026
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7
Newcastle University researchers have demonstrated that plastic bottles attached to fishing nets can help dolphins detect and avoid being caught and killed in the deadly gear.
Plants & Animals
Jul 2, 2026
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45
The scenes are biblical. Tens of thousands of rodents scattering across canola fields, behind sheds, into machinery. River fish with bellies full of mice. Carcasses littering the street, the sidewalk, outside your home. In ...
Ecology
Jul 2, 2026
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300
A new estimate of insect species globally finds that there may be 8 million to 14 million more species than people thought, with few of them discovered.
Plants & Animals
Jun 29, 2026
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20
Australia is home to unusual mammals not found anywhere else—consider the platypus, Tasmanian devil or red kangaroo. But did you know our understanding of this continent's incredible mammalian diversity is still incomplete?
Plants & Animals
Jun 25, 2026
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11
Many bat species emit echolocation calls and use the returning echoes to find their way, detect the presence of fluttering insects, and locate and catch them. A new study investigated this behavior in greater horseshoe bats ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 23, 2026
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