Wild-caught animals continue to be used in biomedical and toxicological research. Their welfare needs differ fundamentally from domesticated laboratory species, requiring specialised consideration.
Wild animals in laboratory settings face welfare challenges beyond those of domesticated research animals. Wild-caught individuals have not adapted behaviourally or physiologically to captivity, resulting in higher chronic stress and poorer welfare outcomes. Capture methods including trapping cause acute suffering and mortality. Confinement in standardised laboratory housing denies the environmental complexity, social structures, and behaviours central to wild animal wellbeing. Transportation across international borders further stresses animals before any experimental procedures begin. The growing body of alternatives including in vitro methods, organoids, computer modelling, and purpose-bred laboratory animals has reduced but not eliminated demand for wild-caught research subjects.