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.
The federal government is injecting millions of dollars into efforts to combat feral hogs—and it's considering spending even more in the coming years. The problem has grown for decades, but our research has found that a recently ...
Ecology
Aug 13, 2026
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Meat is a rare and highly prized resource for wild Guinea baboons (Papio papio). Yet, contrary to long-standing assumptions based on human hunter–gatherer societies, a new study by the German Primate Center—Leibniz-Institute ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 10, 2026
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A new study of bonnethead sharks (Sphyrna tiburo) in Florida dispelled a previous hypothesis about how the distinctive head shapes of males and females develop, offering new insight into one of the species' most unusual biological ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 4, 2026
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A centuries-old annual bird chick hunt on a remote Scottish island, known as the Guga Hunt, has been banned this year, authorities said Monday, citing conservation concerns.
Ecology
Aug 4, 2026
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In southeastern Madagascar, patches of forest that were once cut down to make way for farms are slowly regenerating naturally after being left to lie fallow. But recovering a native forest needs more than just gaining tree ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 3, 2026
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Birds have a lot to do in their short lives: defend territories, build nests, raise chicks and feed themselves. But the toll of these activities may be greater for female birds than for male birds. A new study by UCLA ornithologists ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 30, 2026
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Constant scratching, bumpy skin and tufts of lost fur. Those are just some of the signs that an animal has scabies, a severe and potentially fatal skin disease caused by tiny mites (Sarcoptes scabiei) that burrow into the ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 30, 2026
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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
Jul 24, 2026
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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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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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