Research is necessary for making management decisions and usually requires radio-telemetry, which involves animal capture and handling. Therefore, not handling wildlife is often unrealistic. But if we keep our highest objective in mind, we will always remember that drugging and handling wildlife is our second best option and we will approach our field operations with even more conscientiousness and attention to detail.

With the animal in hand, what is our highest goal in wildlife handling?

Human safety must be identified as the highest priority. This subject is covered in all WVR courses.

If we do have to handle wildlife, then our priority is to look after the well-being of each animal that we handle. It is about choices. We can place each animal's well-being as a priority above putting a radio-collar on, or above collecting blood, for example.

Too often, we get so focused and so pressured, that we forget we have choices. Wildlife chemical immobilization does not have to be a salvage operation. It is not enough to manage knocking the animal down and radio-collaring it. We need to be confident enough, so that frequently we can stop reassess our situation and guide the field operation rather than reacting to it. We can make more time by preparing, organizing, and using the proper techniques and equipment for animal processing.