Field Studies and Ethics | 259 wildlife biologists have concluded that these methods did not meet basic trap standards and could therefore not be considered humane Fox concluded, “For an activity that affects millions of wild animals each year, it is astounding that so little is known about the full impact of trapping on individual animals, wildlife populations and ecosystem health.” While Cattet and other researchers are not ready to give up wildlife research it is heartening that he concludes that we can much more: “I think that a number of things can be done to perhaps minimize restraint times and capture-related injuries,” Cattet said “We could use motion activated video cameras at trap sites that would allow researchers to assess animals’ reactions to capture I think that what this study underscores is that the status quo is not the answer It also underscores the reality that it is not only bears that suffer There’s every reason to believe that other animals are suffering too when they are captured and released.” I have personally experienced the good use of noninvasive field research When I visited elephant expert Iain Douglas-Hamilton and his coworkers, who have been studying elephants in Samburu National Reserve in Northern Kenya, I had the pleasure of collecting elephant dung with George Wittemyer Samples of dung are collected, then sent off for genetic analyses that help George and his colleagues further understand the elephants at Samburu By analyzing fecal hormones, information can also be gathered on stress levels It is known that stress hormones increase when a matriarch is killed, and are higher in areas where there are high levels of poaching Research ecologist Robert Long and his colleagues recently published a book titled Noninvasive Survey Methods for Carnivores that will surely help the animals and be a win-win for all involved in field research John Brusher and Jennifer Schull have developed nonlethal methods for determining the age of fish using the characteristics of dorsal spines Many researchers realize that they don’t have to kill animals to study them, and we can look forward to the development of more and more noninvasive techniques for studying a wide variety of animals Admittedly, it’s a difficult situation, because we need to research to learn more about the animals we want to understand and protect But we can always it more ethically and humanely and be sure that the information we collect truly reflects the behavior of the animals, and that we don’t harm them while we pursue this knowledge While we often cannot know about various aspects of the behavior of animals before we arrive in the field, our presence does influence what animals when we enter into their worlds What appear to be relatively small changes at the individual level can have wideranging effects in both the short and long term On-the-spot decisions often need to be made, and knowledge of what these changes will mean to the lives of the animals involved deserve serious attention A guiding principle should be that the wild animals we are privileged to study should be respected, and when we are unsure about how our activities will influence their lives, we should err on the side of the animals and not engage in these practices until we know the consequences of our acts By being careful about what we in field work, we will