Section 2: The Definitions the Act Turns On

In one line

Nine definitions decide nine different questions, and a wrong definition loses the whole answer.

In exam wording: section 2 of the Wild Life (Protection) Act 1972 defines, among other terms, animal as including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, other chordates and invertebrates and also their young and eggs; wild animal as any animal specified in Schedule I or Schedule II and found wild in nature; hunting as including the killing or poisoning of any wild or captive animal and every attempt to do so, the capturing, coursing, snaring, trapping, driving or baiting of any wild or captive animal and every attempt to do so, and the injuring or destroying or taking of any part of the body of any such animal or, in the case of wild birds or reptiles, the damaging of their eggs or the disturbing of their eggs or nests; captive animal as any animal specified in Schedule I or Schedule II which is captured or kept or bred in captivity; specified plant as any plant specified in Schedule III; trophy as the whole or any part of any captive or wild animal other than vermin which has been kept or preserved by any means; uncured trophy as such an animal or part which has not undergone a process of taxidermy; animal article as an article made from any captive or wild animal other than vermin; and meat as including blood, bones, sinew, eggs, shell or carapace, fat and flesh with or without skin, whether raw or cooked, of any wild or captive animal other than vermin.

Clause (1): animal

"Animal" includes mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, other chordates and invertebrates and also includes their young and eggs. That is the clause substituted by the Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Act 2002, in force from 1 April 2003.

Two words to know. A chordate is an animal that has a notochord, a flexible rod along its back, at some stage of its life; every animal with a backbone is a chordate. An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone, such as an insect, a spider, a snail or a coral.

What changed in 2003. The 1972 clause named only amphibians, birds, mammals and reptiles, and it included eggs only for birds and reptiles. Since 1 April 2003 fish, other chordates and invertebrates are animals under the Act, and so are the young and eggs of every animal. Some consolidated prints of the Act still show the 1972 wording; the substituted clause is the law.

Why the width does not settle a case. The operative sections mostly work through wild animal, which is a narrower term: section 9 bites only on a wild animal specified in Schedule I or Schedule II.