Wildlife rehabilitation

 Wildlife rehabilitation is a term used to describe the process of reintroducing an animal into the wild after being cared for, usually for being orphaned or injured (Mullineaux et al., 2003).

Organisations like the RSPCA act under the guidance of British legislation and their own establishment standards to rehabilitate animals so they are able to survive in the wild, most importantly they adhere to the Animal Welfare Act (2006) which states what an animal needs to have a high standard of care (RSPCA, 2018).

If an animal is not permanently damaged and is eligible to be physically healthy enough for rerelease then the behavioural rehabilitation can begin, such as providing food around the enclosure, so they are able to forage and can get used to how they would feed in the wild instead of from bowls (British Wildlife Rehabilitation Council, 2018).

A study by Molony et al. in 2006 studied the effect of 3 different methods of translocation after captivity on European hedgehogs and found that the group with the longer stay in captivity had a higher rate of survival than the group that had a minimal stay in captivity, this is theorised to be because the group that had a longer stay in captivity were able to build up more of a fat reserve and reduced stress by the time they were released.

An argument against wildlife rehabilitation would be that it could confuse their natural instincts after being in captivity so that they have challenges such as lack of predator avoidance, problems re-entering a social group and being released with stereotypical behaviours (Guy et al., 2013)

In general, wildlife rehabilitation is the only medical aid that most wild animals would be able to receive so despite the risks to their behavioural wellbeing, it should be continued across the U.K..

References:

British Wildlife Rehabilitation Council. 2018. treatment phase. [ONLINE] Available at: http://bwrc.org.uk/treatment-phase/4549075036. [Accessed 16 January 2018].

Guy, A., Curnoe, D., Banks, P., 2013. A survey of current mammal rehabilitation and release practices.. Biodiversity and Conservation, [Online]. Volume 22 (Issue 4), p825-837. Available at: http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=1&sid=7bad16a7-9c35-44d5-b0ed-79957a2deb30%40sessionmgr4008&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#AN=86641235&db=edb [Accessed 17 January 2018].

Molony, S.E., Dowding, C.V., Baker, P.J., Cuthill, I.C., Harris, S., 2006. The effect of translocation and temporary captivity on wildlife rehabilitation success: An experimental study using European hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus). Biological Conservation, [Online]. Volume 130 (Issue 4), p530-537. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320706000395? [Accessed 17 January 2018].

Mullineaux, E., Best, D., Cooper, J.E., 2003. BSAVA manual of wildlife casualties. 1st ed. Gloucester: BSAVA.

RSPCA. 2018. Our wildlife rehabilitation standards. [ONLINE] Available at: https://science.rspca.org.uk/sciencegroup/wildlife/reportsandresources/rehabilitation/standards. [Accessed 16 January 2018].