Abstract
Animal Ethics Committees evaluate research proposals according to the Australian Code of Practice for the care and Use of Animals for Scientific Purposes (NHMRC 1997). All Australian universities, the CSIRO, many agencies controlled by the states and other organizations adhere to the specifications. The 1997 revision of the Code of Practice explicitly broadened its scope from laboratory animals to include field-based ecological studies, such a s those conducted by conservation biologists. However, in defining an animal as “any live non-human vertebrate” invertebrates are excluded by the Code.