Darting Primates in the Field: A Review of Reporting Trends and a Survey of Practices and Their Effect on the Primates Involved

Abstract

. (2015) 'Darting primates in the eld : a review of reporting trends and a survey of practices and their eect on the primates involved.', International journal of primatology., 36 (5). pp. 894-915. Further information on publisher's website:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10764-015-9862-0Publisher's copyright statement:The nal publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10764-015-9862-0Additional information: Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. AbstractCapture is one of the top ethical concerns of field primatologists, and darting is a common method of capturing primates. Little is published, however, about the safety of darting practices and conditions for the animals concerns. We conducted a literature review to examine trends in the reporting of darting methods and results, and two anonymous surveys of primatologists to gather information on darting methods and their effect on the primates involved. Among 111 papers reporting studies that darted primates, only 18 included full details of procedures, the total numbers of primates darted and the number, if any, of injuries and complications. In the surveys, 73 respondents reported on 2,092 dartings, including 44 injuries. The results show that smaller primates are more likely to be injured. 91% of seriously and fatally injured primates were arboreal, although arboreal species accounted for only 54% of the dartings. All primates who were fatally injured due to a dart hitting the abdomen or head were darted with a rifle, which were used for 45% of dartings. The presence of a veterinarian appears to reduce primate mortality in the event of injury or complications. Severe social effects of darting are not common, but include forced copulations, partner changes, and fatal attacks on infants. Lack of information about primate darting hinders refinement in methods that could improve safety. We hope this study will lead to greater sharing of information and the formation of a committee of experts in capture and immobilization to evaluate and regularly update protocols.

Darting Primates: Steps Toward Procedural and Reporting Standards

“…We reanalyzed 29 of the articles considered in Cunningham et al (2015): 18 articles assessed as having detailed information on darting procedures and 11 with information on the rate of fatalities, other health problems, and general information on procedures (Cunningham and colleagues kindly provided us full citations for these 11 articles). These articles were selected by the authors from a set of 111 articles identified through searches and ranked for the level of information on darting procedures, from most comprehensive (1) to no detail (5).…”

“…We sought to quantitatively analyze the injuries and mortality reported in the literature, a different objective from that of Cunningham et al (2015), whose stated goal was to examine reporting trends in darting. Owing to this difference, we excluded 3 of the 18 articles in Category 1 and 5 of the 11 in Category 2 that may have been appropriate to include in an analysis of reporting trends, but not in an analysis of injuries and mortality.…”

“…Because darting poses risks to the individuals being captured there are specific considerations that are a function of the species size, habitats, and behavior. A recent article in the International Journal of Primatology anonymously surveyed primatologists on darting methods and their effects on primates, and conducted a literature review to assess the reporting trends of darting methods and results (Cunningham et al 2015). The authors report that in only 18 of 111 articles (16.2%) documenting darted primates did researchers include what they considered sufficiently detailed darting procedures and they call for more detailed reporting of darting procedures in publications.…”

“…Our ultimate goal is the same as that of Cunningham et al (2015), to contribute to developing a system in which experienced primatologists can make their knowledge available to others and to develop protocols that substantially reduce direct, indirect, and delayed mortality of immobilized primates. The need for more systematically reported data is illustrated when considering the diversity of the primates we study, the experience of the research team, and the cultural context in which the protocols are implemented.…”

“…To illustrate the limitations of existing data, we quantitatively reanalyzed the 29 articles described by Cunningham et al (2015) as having information on fatalities and/ or injuries (26% of all articles considered). The objectives were 1) to reanalyze the data contained in the 18 articles classified as having detailed information on injuries, deaths, and procedures; 2) to expand the analyses by incorporating 11 articles classified as including general information on fatalities and procedures; and 3) to propose that a single quantitative estimate of death or injury for all primates is neither informative nor helpful.…”