New species identification methods could help researchers preserve species that are on the brink of extinction.
The researchers suggest current identification methods and specimen collection practices could put species in danger that are already facing extinction, an Arizona State University news release reported.
"We are drawing attention to this issue as an important question bearing on the ethical responsibilities of field biologists," Ben Minteer, an environmental ethicist and conservation scholar in ASU's School of Life Sciences, said in the news release. "It concerns not only an increased extinction threat to re-discovered species, but also the collection of specimens from small populations more generally."
"Because these populations are very small and often isolated, they are incredibly sensitive to over-collecting," Minteer said. "Combine the understandable impulse to confirm something really important - such as that a species is not, in fact, extinct - with the sensitivity of a population to collection and you've got a potentially significant conservation issue."
The researchers suggest using techniques such as high-resolution photography and audio recordings of animal calls instead of lethal methods. DNA swabs could also be an effective identification method.
"The thrill of rediscovering a species must be one of the most exciting events in a biologist's life, however it is easy to forget it comes with significant responsibilities," Robert Puschendorf, a conservation biologist with the School of Biological Sciences at Plymouth University, said in the news release. "What impact are we causing to the species even in this first encounter? The technology is there to gather crucial evidence to substantiate our finding without harming the animals. There is no need to collect by default."
Studying small species populations while causing minimal damage is difficult, but researchers hope these methods could be effective in doing so.
"Our goal is to highlight this challenge while offering options for documenting exciting, interesting and important discoveries,"J ames P. Collins, an evolutionary ecologist and Virginia M. Ullman Professor of Natural History and the Environment in ASU's School of Life Sciences said in the news release. "We are emphasizing the need for investigators to reflect on the wider ethical and social implications of their work before or as they conduct the research, and not just after the fact."
"The time to change is now," Minteer said. "While we use amphibians as an example in this article, the negative effects of collecting samples from endangered animal populations is a concern that applies across taxa and around the world. The argument that 'this is how we've always done it' is not good enough. Especially in the case of rediscovered species, avoiding 're-extinction' should be the primary ethical constraint of any scientific effort to verify a species' welcome return from the dead."
