Crucial but Neglected: Limited Availability of Animal Welfare Courses in Education of Wildlife Researchers.

Animal welfare is a subject of increasing scientific and ethical concern in today's society, crucial for the well-being of animals used in research and the integrity of scientific data. Equipping researchers in the life science disciplines with a science-based knowledge of animal welfare, behaviour, physiology, and health is, therefore, essential. Nevertheless, previous studies evaluating animal welfare education focused on veterinary, laboratory, or farm animal science.

Noninvasive Genetic Assessment Is an Effective Wildlife Research Tool When Compared with Other Approaches.

Wildlife research has been indispensable for increasing our insight into ecosystem functioning as well as for designing effective conservation measures under the currently high rates of biodiversity loss. Genetic and genomic analyses might be able to yield the same information on, e.g.

Educational use of animals in Europe indicates a reluctance to implement alternatives.

Animals have been considered an indispensable tool to teach about the functioning of living organisms, to obtain skills necessary for practicing human and veterinary medicine, as well as for acquiring skills for caring for and conducting experiments on animals in laboratories. However, the efficacy of this practice has been questioned in recent decades, and societal views have evolved to place a much stronger emphasis on animal welfare and ethics that needs to be reflected in our teaching and training practices. Currently, many alternatives to harmful animal use are available, and it is not clear why thousands of animals continue to be used every year for educational and training purposes.

The Educational Efficacy of Humane Teaching Methods: A Systematic Review of the Evidence.

Humane alternatives to harmful educational animal use include ethically-sourced cadavers, models, mannequins, mechanical simulators, videos, computer and virtual reality simulations, and supervised clinical and surgical experiences. In many life and health sciences courses, however, traditional animal use persists, often due to uncertainty about the educational efficacy of humane alternatives. The most recent comprehensive reviews assessing learning outcomes of humane teaching methods, in comparison to harmful animal use, were published more than 10 years ago.

Recognizing animal personhood in compassionate conservation.

Compassionate conservation is based on the ethical position that actions taken to protect biodiversity should be guided by compassion for all sentient beings. Critics argue that there are 3 core reasons harming animals is acceptable in conservation programs: the primary purpose of conservation is biodiversity protection; conservation is already compassionate to animals; and conservation should prioritize compassion to humans. We used argument analysis to clarify the values and logics underlying the debate around compassionate conservation.

Introgressive replacement of natives by invading Arion pest slugs.

Hybridization with invasive species is one of the major threats to the phenotypic and genetic persistence of native organisms worldwide. Arion vulgaris (syn. lusitanicus) is a major agricultural pest slug that successfully invaded many European countries in recent decades, but its impact on closely related native species remains unclear.

Phylogeographic past and invasive presence of Arion pest slugs in Europe.

Arion vulgaris (syn. A. lusitanicus) is the most destructive pest slug in Europe.

The Gastropod Menace: Slugs on Brassica Plants Affect Caterpillar Survival through Consumption and Interference with Parasitoid Attraction.

Terrestrial molluscs and insect herbivores play a major role as plant consumers in a number of ecosystems, but their direct and indirect interactions have hardly been explored. The omnivorous nature of slugs makes them potential disrupters of predator-prey relationships, as a direct threat to small insects and through indirect, plant-mediated effects. Here, we examined the effects of the presence of two species of slugs, Arion rufus (native) and A.