Place orphaned or abandoned wild young with captive foster parents

Overall effectiveness category Likely to be beneficial
Number of studies: 2
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How is the evidence assessed?

Effectiveness

70%
Certainty

40%
Harms

7%

Calculating overall effectiveness category

Background information and definitions

Young mammals believed to be orphaned or abandoned are sometimes taken in by wildlife rehabilitators, to be reared and released back into the wild. Often, this is done more for animal welfare reasons than for species conservation though for rare species, release of such animals may provide opportunities for choosing where to augment populations. If such mammals can be fostered in captivity by parents of the same species, it may reduce the extent to which they become imprinted on humans and could improve the prospects of post-release survival in the wild. However, the success of such programmes can be difficult to judge, without benchmark data for survival of wild-reared mammals.

Study locations

Key messages

Two studies evaluated the effects of placing orphaned or abandoned wild young with captive foster parents. One study was in Canada and one was in the USA.

COMMUNITY RESPONSE (0 STUDIES)

POPULATION RESPONSE (1 STUDY)

Survival (1 study): A controlled study in the USA found that stranded sea otter pups reared in captivity by foster mothers had higher post-release survival than did unfostered pups reared mostly alone, and similar survival to wild pups.

BEHAVIOUR (2 STUDIES)

Behaviour change (2 studies): A study in Canada found that a captive white-tailed deer adopted a wild orphaned fawn. A controlled study in the USA found that stranded sea otter pups reared in captivity by foster mothers began foraging earlier than did unfostered pups reared mostly alone.

About key messages

Key messages provide a descriptive index to studies we have found that test this intervention.

Studies are not directly comparable or of equal value. When making decisions based on this evidence, you should consider factors such as study size, study design, reported metrics and relevance of the study to your situation, rather than simply counting the number of studies that support a particular interpretation.

Supporting evidence from individual studies

A study in 1993 in a captive facility in New Brunswick, Canada (Greaves & Duffy 1994) found that a captive white-tailed deer Odocileus virginianus adopted a wild orphaned fawn. The fawn was around one week old when rescued and was initially hand-fed. After five days, a captive white-tailed deer doe gave birth to a stillborn fawn. The following day, the orphaned fawn was placed with the doe. It was initially ignored, and hand-feeding continued. One day later, the hide of the stillborn fawn was wrapped around the orphaned fawn. The doe proceeded to lick the hide and nursed the fawn thereafter, even after the hide became detached after five hours, due to vigorous licking. The study took place in a captive research facility to which the orphaned fawn was delivered on 9 June 1993. Attachment of the hide, and adoption by the doe took place on 15 June 1993.
Study and other actions tested
Referenced paper
Greaves T.A. & Duffy M.S. (1994) Adoption of a white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus, fawn by a captive doe. The Canadian Field-Naturalist, 108, 239.
A controlled study in 1986–2004 at an aquarium and coastal site in California, USA (Nicholson et al. 2007) found that stranded sea otter Enhydra lutris pups reared in captivity by foster mothers began foraging earlier and had greater survival in the wild than unfostered pups, and similar survival to wild pups. Fostered sea otter pups began foraging independently on live prey at younger ages (average 8–19 weeks old) than unfostered pups reared mostly alone (average 11–22 weeks old). A greater proportion of fostered pups survived at least one year after release (5 of 7 pups; 71%) than unfostered pups (8 of 26 pups; 31%), and survival was similar to wild pups (9 of 12 pups; 75%). In 2001–2003, seven stranded sea otter pups were brought into captivity and reared with adult female sea otters. In 1986–2000, twenty-six stranded sea otter pups were reared in captivity without foster mothers (mostly alone). All pups were rehabilitated at the same aquarium. Before release, pups were implanted with radio-transmitters and individually tagged. After release in 1987–2004, the rehabilitated otters were monitored daily during the first month and then twice weekly for up to 12 months. Twelve wild juvenile male sea otter pups were observed during a field study prior to 2003 (date not reported).
Study and other actions tested
Referenced paper
Nicholson T.E., Mayer K.A., Staedler M.M. & Johnson A.B. (2007) Effects of rearing methods on survival of released free-ranging juvenile southern sea otters. Biological Conservation, 138, 313-320.

Please cite as:

Littlewood, N.A., Rocha, R., Smith, R.K., Martin, P.A., Lockhart, S.L., Schoonover, R.F., Wilman, E., Bladon, A.J., Sainsbury, K.A., Pimm S. and Sutherland, W.J. (2020) Terrestrial Mammal Conservation: Global Evidence for the Effects of Interventions for terrestrial mammals excluding bats and primates. Synopses of Conservation Evidence Series. University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

Where has this evidence come from?

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This Action forms part of the Action Synopsis:

Terrestrial Mammal Conservation

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Hand-rear orphaned or abandoned young in captivity Action Link	Trade-off between benefit and harms	6	Synopsis Link
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