Keywords

Captive care: how a wild animal is fed and cared for when it is kept in a cage or enclosure.

Captivity: keeping an animal in a cage or pen. Animals in captivity need humans to feed and care for them.

Disease monitoring: reporting diseases if they are found in a single animal or an entire population.

Disease surveillance: actively looking for diseases in a population of animals.

Euthanized: providing a humane, peaceful death for an animal that would suffer if it were kept alive.

Fledgling: a young bird with most of its feathers that cannot fly and still needs its parents to feed it.

Niche: the role a plant or animal plays in its ecosystem.

Non-releasable: an animal that cannot survive in the wild due to an injury, not being able to have babies, or not having enough resources in its habitat.

Raptor: a bird with sharp nails and a hooked beak. Raptors hunt and eat other animals.

Releasable: an animal that is healthy enough to survive on its own in the wild.

Stewardship: caring for the natural resources of the earth, including the wild animals.

Survivability: describes a wild animal that can find food, escape from predators, and do other normal behaviors like migration.

Veterinarian: a doctor that provides medical care for any animal species except humans.

Wildlife medicine: caring for whole populations of animals with the goal to make the most animals healthy.

Wildlife rehabilitation: caring for individual wild animals until they can be released back to the wild. Wildlife rehabilitators are people who have special training and permits from the government to care for wild animals.