Hand-Rearing vs. Parent Raised

On a recent extended visit to a zoo, one topic that arose among some of the keeper staff concerned the individual animal well-being pros and cons of hand-rearing predator species versus managing them as parent-raised animals. Historically, many zoos have preferred to let young predatory species, especially elusive felines, be reared entirely by the parent, with minimal contact with human caregivers. As part of long term conservation goals that included the possibility of reintroducing zoo born animals to their original ranges, this husbandry management practice made sense in order to avoid habituation to human beings and activities during critical learning periods. However, even in wealthier nations with ample resources and oversight, the reintroduction, or merely the preservation of existing predator populations like wolves, in the wild has been plagued with setbacks, modest results, and public resistance.

As society sorts out global land-use policies and struggles to find better ways to reduce human-animal conflicts, should our zoological animal management strategies be adapted, at least for the foreseeable future, to reflect this reality? In our noble quest to achieve a conservation dream of future species reintroductions, are we sacrificing individual animal welfare today by not doing everything we can to prepare these newborns for a more likely lifetime in managed human care? Our guest, long time zoo curator Suzi Rapp believes the answer to questions like these requires us to gather more scientific data in order balance the conservation needs of the species with the welfare needs of the individual.

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