Perceptions of wildlife in rehabilitation from images and statements

People form perceptions of the approachability of wild animals from images and statements pertaining to non-domestic animals under human care. The exact perceptions have been previously studied in primates. A survey using constructed images and statements about wild animals in care was circulated via email and social media to stakeholders in wildlife rehabilitation. Respondents were asked to categorize each statement or image as representing a pet, education animal, or a releasable wild animal. The results, specifically the finding that 94% of the respondents chose wild animal when presented with a best-practice image, supported our hypothesis that best-practice images and technical names provoked perceptions that the animals were releasable wild animals. Contrary to our hypothesis that not-recommended practices and anthropomorphic labels would lead to perceptions of the animals as pets, we instead found that these scenarios produced an ambiguous grouping of the categories by the respondents. When presented with an ambiguous image, 48% of the respondents labeled it as a pet and 42% labeled it as a wild animal. Practitioners of wildlife rehabilitation should always use clear technical language and employ best-practice images in their public communications to appropriately portray the animals as wild denizens temporarily in care.