Abstract
Wildlife rehabilitation is a publicly popular practice, though not without controversy. State wildlife agencies frequently debate the ecological impact of rehabilitation. By analyzing case records, we can clarify and quantify the causes for rehabilitation, species involved, and treatment outcomes. This data would aid regulatory agencies and rehabilitators in making informed decisions, as well as gaining insight into causes of species mortality. In New York State, the Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) has licensed rehabilitators since 1980 and annual reporting is required. In this study, we analyzed 58,185 individual wildlife cases that were attended by New York rehabilitators between 2012 and 2014. These encompassed 30,182 (51.9%) birds, 25,447 (43.7%) mammals, 2,421 (4.2%) reptiles, and 75 (0.1%) amphibians. We identified patterns among taxonomic representation, reasons for presentation to a rehabilitation center, and animal disposition. Major causes of presentation were trauma (n = 22,156; 38.1%) and orphaning (n = 21,679; 37.3%), with habitat loss (n = 3,937; 6.8%), infectious disease (n = 1,824; 3.1%), and poisoning or toxin exposure (n = 806; 1.4%) playing lesser roles. The overall release rate for animals receiving care was 50.2% while 45.3% died or were euthanized during the rehabilitation process. A relatively small number (0.3%) were permanently non-releasable and placed in captivity; 4.1% had unknown outcomes. A comparable evaluation in 1989 revealed that wildlife submissions have increased (annual mean 12,583 vs 19,395), and are accompanied by a significant improvement in release (50.2% in the study period vs 44.4% in 1989) (χ2(1) = 90.43, p < 0.0001). In this manuscript, we aim to describe the rehabilitator community in New York State, and present the causes and outcomes for rehabilitation over a three-year period.
Highlights
Ethical questions and skepticism over the ecological benefits have fueled debate on rehabilitative treatment of wild animals [1, 2]
A retrospective study of wildlife rehabilitation in the state of New York (USA) was performed using licensed wildlife rehabilitator logs submitted to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC)
45.5% of all animals were seen by the 2.4% of rehabilitators who saw more than 300 animals annually. These results are compared to the demographics of wildlife rehabilitators in 1989 (Table 1)
Summary
Ethical questions and skepticism over the ecological benefits have fueled debate on rehabilitative treatment of wild animals [1, 2]. Wildlife rehabilitation in New York State injured, orphaned, and displaced wild animals with the primary goal of returning them to their natural habitat. The value of rehabilitation for individual animals is controversial, as some argue that stressors on animals undergoing care may be as traumatizing to the animal as the inciting event [3,4,5]. Rehabilitation provides people with close contact with wildlife, potentially increasing knowledge of wild species and factors contributing to their declines, which can have positive impacts on local biodiversity conservation [6]
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