Conservation and the 4 Rs, which are rescue, rehabilitation, release, and research.
Vertebrate animals can be injured or threatened with injury through human activities, thus warranting their "rescue." Details of wildlife rescue, rehabilitation, release, and associated research (our 4 Rs) are often recorded in large databases, resulting in a wealth of available information. This information has huge research potential and can contribute to understanding of animal biology, anthropogenic impacts on wildlife, and species conservation. However, such databases have been little used, few studies have evaluated factors influencing success of rehabilitation and/or release, recommended actions to conserve threatened species have rarely arisen, and direct benefits for species conservation are yet to be demonstrated. We therefore recommend that additional research be based on data from rescue, rehabilitation, and release of animals that is broader in scope than previous research and would have community support.
School of Life Sciences, University of Technology Sydney, P.O. Box 123, Ultimo, NSW, 2007, Australia.|Department of Biology, Macquarie University, Ryde, NSW, 2109, Australia.|Australian Museum, Sydney, NSW, 2010, Australia.
Graham H
0000-0002-9760-987X
GH
Pyke
Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT, 0909, Australia.
Judit K
JK
Szabo
D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D056727:Endangered Species; D006802:Human Activities; D006801:Humans
animales vertebrados; ciencia ciudadana; citizen science; human impacts; impactos humanos; manejo de fauna; rescate de fauna; vertebrate animals; wildlife management; wildlife rescue