Wildlife rehabilitation is the process of caring for injured, sick, orphaned, or displaced wild animals with the goal of releasing them back into their natural habitat. It involves medical treatment, temporary housing, and specialized care for a variety of species, from birds and mammals to reptiles and amphibians. Wildlife rehabilitation combines veterinary science, wildlife conservation, and animal welfare to ensure that animals have the best chance for recovery and survival after facing challenges such as injury, disease, or human interference.
In addition to caring for animals, wildlife rehabilitators often work to educate the public about conservation, habitat protection, and how to coexist with wildlife. They play an essential role in addressing the effects of human activities on wild animal populations, including habitat destruction, pollution, and vehicle collisions.
General Rehabilitation facilities often admitted hundreds to thousands of animals annually with the causes for admission vary depending on the taxonomic group. There are primarily birds and mammals that are brought into rehabilitation facilities followed by reptiles then amphibians. A lot of rehabilitation centers are also tied in public outreach programs in an attempt to reduce the threats to wildlife, particularly through human-wildlife conflicts.
While traditional human-wildlife interactions in the forms of hunting and trapping have declined over time, there has been an increase in the presence and use of wildlife rehabilitation centers, showing the transition in how the public is engaging with local wildlife.
Process
Wildlife rehabilitation requires specialized knowledge and training in wildlife biology, veterinary medicine, and animal care. Work performed by wildlife rehabilitators has a focus on the individual level and adequately distributes resources to help the most individuals. Practitioners are oftentimes motivated by compassion and beliefs in the importance of welfare and environmental protection similar to conservation scientist's values.
The process typically follows these steps:
Rescue:
Rehabilitation begins when an animal is found and reported to a wildlife rehabilitator or seized from the illegal wildlife trade or a poacher. If one finds wildlife in need of rescue, it can be dangerous or even illegal to interact with the animal yourself; be sure to contact a licensed rehabilitator before taking action. Unfortunately, oftentimes unsupervised individuals will perform procedures that would require the knowledge and skills of a veterinarian without seeking them out first, this often results in difficulties in the recovery process.
The facility relies on the public to bring the wildlife in to be treated, this leads to the majority of animals being admitted being those that untrained individuals are willing to handle. The most common reason for admission is orphaned/abandoned animals, but oftentimes they are not actually orphaned, therefore educating the public in the determining factors for if a baby is actually orphaned. There is a big change in the number and variability of species being admitted based on the seasons. This has a big part to do with baby season for animals, as it is often juvenile animals that are injured and admitted into the rehabilitation centers.
Assessment and Treatment:
Wildlife rehabilitators are not veterinarians but they are permitted to provide treatment for injured animals under the guidance and surveilance of a licensed veterinarian. Regardless, they still require the same amount of training as other medial technical professions. Some animals who suffer from severe injuries or illnesses that leave them beyond saving have to be euthanized. The best initial treatment recommended is fluid therapy, which involves stabilizing the animal by leaving them in a warm, quiet, dark enclosure for destressing. Other important treatment factor to consider is the Refeeding Syndrome which could impose severe damage to the animals' physiology if they are not treated with fluids and warmth before being fed solid food.
Rehabilitators practice triage, which is a series of guidelines and process to assess the urgency of an animal's injury and evaluate which specific conditions warrant more attention. In wildlife rehabilitation most of the essential framework of the triage typically used in the medical world, is preserved, however it is slightly adjusted in light of rehabilitation potential and eventual release as well as the availability of training facilities and other resources. To prevent any complications and further damage, triage decisions should also be made within 48 hours of admission.
Bio-containment risks present a great threat and make veterinary practices impractical and ineffective for long-term care. Furthermore, animals must undergo different types of assessments prior to being released, to ensure full recovery. For birds specifically, flight training, which mimics its natural wildlife ecosystems often uses large flight cages for bats and falconry-style training for raptors.
Recording Information:
Each individual animal admitted is given a unique record no matter if they came in with a group of other individuals, their life stage and even if they arrive at the center dead. After arrival a physical exam is performed to find the full extent of the injuries, these exams can be performed by veterinarians or rehabilitation center staff members. When an animal is admitted specific variables are recorded, these variables include scientific species name, age, sex (if applicable), exact location found and the reason they were admitted. The reason for admittance often does not match the actual reason the animal is in distress and in need of assistance. One often example of this is when people bring in 'orphaned' animals, particularly birds, with no visible injuries, but when admitted are found to be cat or dog attack victims based on internal or hidden injuries.
Often in records the individuals brought in are separated into general taxonomic groups, which are often birds (columbiformes, raptors, passerines, waterfowl, etc.), mammals (large mammals, small herbivores and small carnivores), rabies vector species (bats, raccoons and striped skunk), reptiles (turtles, snakes, and lizards) and amphibians (frogs and salamanders), and unknown.
Individual animals are then given a category of injury based on the extensiveness of the damage after being analyzed after admission. Typically there are 5 categories, 1 meaning no apparent injury to 5 meaning near death, blind or having a fractured pelvis with. In some cases there is a sixth category that is specifically for ocular injuries to owls. These categories are important in the analysis of the effect of injury severity on particular species and their likelihood for survival. There is also a scale for traumatic injuries rating 1 to 5, 1 being concussion or head trauma, 2 being fracture, 3 being undetermined, 4 being no visible trauma and 5 being other. If an animal is admitted with multiple injuries listed, it is officially listed with the primary reason for admittance, though if a disease is listed along with an injury both are recorded. Rabies is one of the many diseases that is amongst the most public health concern, this makes animals that are presenting the symptoms of the disease less likely to be approached and brought into the rehabilitation centers. This also leads to a lack of information on rabies vector species and how they are affected in rehabilitation efforts.
The animals that come in with injuries like complex fractures and deep wounds penetrating the tissue have been found to have poor release rates as well as longer periods held in care prior to release or death in care. This finding has brought the question of welfare into consideration, seeing as poor triage is equated to poor welfare. Poor welfare is associated with high stress to the animal from increased interaction, this stress is a major prevention factor in the recovery process.
There are also categories for the final disposition of the animal split into 4 groups, 1 for died under care, prior to care or euthanized 2 for released, 3 for non-releasable and placed under permanent care of licensed individual or institution, and 4 for unknown either still under care or just completely unknown.
Rehabilitation:
Once stabilized, the animal is placed in an appropriate setting where it can recover. This may include an aviary, enclosure, or pool, depending on the species. Animals undergo three stages of housing depending on the type of injury and/or illness. Restricted caging permits the animal to undergo limited activities and mobilities, focusing on observation, rest and treatment. The recovery phase of housing provides more leniency to the limitation while the unlimited or conditioning phase mandates for a rehabilitation space that will allow the wildlife to regain their strength, mobility, and survival skills.
The animals' life-history strategies can affect their ability to combat increases in mortality rates in the population. R-selected species that have rapid maturity, high fecundity, and short generation times are more likely to be able to recover from declines in population. Unlike K-selected species with slow growth, low fecundity, and long generation times which are much more vulnerable to increased declines following increases in adult mortality.
Rehabilitation centers generally consider the successful release of an individual to be a success, but higher up success is considered to be a proper release and integration back into the wild with a similar survival rate to their wild counterparts. There are also different requirements before an individual can be released into the wild, one being that if an animal had an amputated limb it is not allowed to be released into the wild as they are not believed to be the most successful when trying to integrate into their original environment. If it is believed that the individual being rehabilitated is not going to survive or is going to live but only in an unfit for life in the wild then it is expected that it will be euthanized to prevent further suffering. There is an exception if it is possible for the individual to live in captivity with a good quality of life.
Release:
When an animal is fully recovered, rehabilitators aim to release it into a suitable habitat close to where it was originally found. The release site is carefully chosen to ensure the animal can thrive in its environment. Rehabilitation differs from other forms of translocations used to release animals because individuals are released at their capture site as long as it is a safe area for them to return to instead of an unfamiliar environment. Releasing rehabilitated individuals back into their original population is unlikely to affects in large numbers, but in small and threatened populations it can mean the difference between extinction and survival of the entire population.
There is also the consideration of how an animal is released, as that has been found to affect the survivability of the species in the wild. There is also the consideration that particular species need more care and attention before they can be released, particularly for juveniles.
It can be quite hard to determine if the animals being released are surviving, but one effective way to see if they are is to track them via radiotracking or other conservation tracking efforts. It has been found that translocations and reintroductions of wild animals are more successful than captive-bred individuals. Rehabilitated individuals have a good chance of surviving when returned to the wild after treatment.