MICROCHIPS ARE BEST KNOWN for their role in the pet industry, helping to reunite animal owners with their lost cats, dogs and horses. Microchips do, however, have uses beyond pet identification. Pet-ID has supplied microchips for animals in zoos and wildlife sanctuaries, as well as a range of inanimate objects, from prosthetic limbs to saddlery. The company also provides microchips for use in numerous conservation projects and follows their activities with interest.
Pine marten translocation
Wildlife Vets International and Vincent Wildlife Trust are currently translocating pine martens from Scotland to North Wales to re-establish populations. Populations have dwindled startlingly since the Mesolithic era, when the pine marten was the second most common carnivore in Britain. Each pine marten is implanted to enable researchers to identify individuals that have been retrapped or are found dead. Re-trapping data enable researchers to make informed conservation decisions by building a picture of how individuals use their environment. Olivia Walter, executive director at Wildlife Vets International, says: “8mm FDX-B microchips are used because they are small – an adult pine marten averages 1.5kg – and the needle on Pet-ID syringes is sharp, enabling precise implantation.” As the translocations have been such a success, the team, led by Vincent Wildlife Trust, is now considering further translocations to mid-Wales.
Hedgehog rehabilitation
South Essex Wildlife Hospital decided to try microchips because the
traditional methods of colour-coding hedgehogs with paint
spots is unreliable. Sue Schwar, founder of the charity, is enthusiastic about the new approach. “Microchipping has been much more accurate,” she says, “and it is extremely time-saving not having to flick through piles of dog-eared, dirt-smeared paper
records to find the right ‘green and pink spot one’ once the hedgehogs are in the rehabilitation paddocks.”
Orangutan rescue
International Animal Rescue’s team is working in West Kalimantan,
Indonesia, to rescue and care for baby orangutans that have been taken from their mothers to be illegally sold as pets, adults that have spent their entire lives in captivity, and orangutans left stranded when their forest home is destroyed. These vulnerable animals are microchipped as they are translocated to safe areas of protected forest for monitoring purposes. Chief executive, Alan Knight OBE, says: “We take rescuing orangutans very seriously and we always use Pet-ID microchips to provide quick identification of our animals.”
Big cat monitoring
Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research uses Pet-ID microchips for free-ranging cheetahs in Namibia, where they’ve run a cheetah research project since 2002 and a leopard research project since 2012. The team captures, immobilises and samples
the animals in the field and fits them with GPS collars. With the data and samples, the team conducts conservation research on reproduction, health and disease, and the carnivorefarmer conflict.
Animals are identified by the microchip and their spot patterns
when they are re-captured. Microchip identification is particularly important for juvenile animals. Juveniles are not collared and the proportions in their spot patterns can change as they grow. Bettina Watcher, an evolutionary ecologist, conservation biologist and
senior scientist at the Liebniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, who runs the cheetah and leopard research projects in Namibia, commends the easy use of microchips under field conditions.
