Why does IFAW rescue wildlife?

Beyond the moral argument, another reason wildlife rescues are so important is because they can make or break the success of conservation efforts. If Earth’s ecosystems were in balance, the loss of individual animals here or there wouldn’t mean much for species’ fate. However, given the severity of the extinction crisis, today we have critically endangered species such as the African penguin and the northern white rhino, whose numbers are down to the point where every individual equates to a massive percentage of that population—as well as genetic diversity that is critical for the species’ survival.  

The future of many highly threatened species may depend on how many animals we can save today. When rehabilitation efforts are successful, we can reintroduce those animals back into the wild, where they become a valuable part of the population. For instance, if we save the life of a female elephant calf, how many offspring will she go on to have in her lifetime? When you start to look at the exponential impact of that, it can make a big difference for the species.  

Just look at the California condor, whose species was down to only 23 individuals by the early 1980s. Shortly thereafter, the remaining birds were captured to begin a captive-breeding programme to help save the species from extinction. As of 2024, there are now 568 California condors, with the majority of those living back in the wild. While the species remains threatened, this is a remarkable revival made possible by human intervention.   

Many of the solutions that help us fight the extinction crisis—changing laws and enforcing them, securing protected areas, working with communities to establish alternative livelihoods, and influencing consumer behavior to reduce demand for wildlife products—are inherently slow processes that are usually plagued with bureaucracy. By doing hands-on wildlife rescues, we can act as a stopgap, keeping the species hanging on until those larger mechanisms can be bolstered to adequately protect critical ecosystems and species. 

Rescue informs research 

Monitoring the animals we release has given us new insights that can help inform future conservation efforts. For example, in IFAW’s work with partner organizations to rehabilitate and release orphaned elephant calves in Zambia, Zimbabwe, and India, we first organize the orphan elephants into artificial family groups. This is crucial from a welfare perspective, as elephants are a social species that rely on these family bonds for their well-being. After these elephants are rehabilitated and released back into the wild, they often gravitate toward wild elephant families, which afford them the protection and socialization they need.  

Since we track all released elephants via satellite collars, this helps us not only assess whether the orphans require further support, but also see where wild elephants are going—knowledge that would be much more time-consuming and expensive to obtain if we had to dart and collar wild elephants. This knowledge is critically important for IFAW’s Room to Roam initiative, which aims to understand elephants’ movement patterns to better protect them and secure their habitats. Observing how elephants are moving within core landscapes and between protected areas not only opens up a whole new level of understanding of elephant behavior, but it can also play a massive role in improving conservation efforts by allowing us to focus money and energy on the areas where elephants need us most.  

Satellite technology has also made it easier for us to keep tabs on the rehabilitated animals that we have released back into the wild—and confirm the success of these efforts. Take Jack, a young elephant who entered a rehabilitation facility in Zimbabwe in 2023. We don't know what happened to his mother and the family group, but he stayed at the facility for a couple of months until he was ready to re-enter the wild. Outfitted with a tracking collar, Jack has since traveled huge distances in an area covering more than 10,000 square kilometers (more than 4,000 square miles) in Botswana and Zimbabwe as the group he was with traversed the landscape throughout the seasons. That tells us that the rehabilitation process was successful and his ability to integrate back into a wild herd was effective. We’ve seen similar results with other species such as giant anteaters—despite the trauma that they’ve gone through, many of these animals have been able to return to the wild and live a natural life again. 

IFAW’s global rescue impact 

IFAW works with strategic partners all over the world to provide funding and technical support for wildlife rescues. From China to Lebanon to Mexico to Australia, you never know where the next crisis or disaster might require animals to be rescued.  

As climate change has exacerbated drought in many places around the globe, fire has become a bigger threat to wildlife. When Australia was devastated by wildfires in 2019, we helped hundreds of koalas recover and return to the wild. More recently, as fires burned out of control in the Brazilian Pantanal, we have worked with local partner Tamanduá Institute to rehabilitate giant anteaters who were orphaned or injured by the blaze.  

Through our CARE program (funded by the U.S. Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs), IFAW also works with law enforcement agencies and frontline customs offices in how to handle wildlife that is confiscated, ensure the welfare of those animals, and get them to a safe place where they can either be repatriated to their native country or, if they are native species, can get into a rehabilitation system and eventually be released back into the wild. 

Of course, release back into the wild is not possible for all species or all individuals. For example, some animals face injuries serious enough that the most humane action is unfortunately euthanasia. In the case of lion, tiger, and leopard cubs, hand-rearing those animals and releasing them into the wild presents a myriad of challenges. So, these big cats often move into a sanctuary situation where they can be cared for humanely, because big cats that are hand-reared can pose major threats to communities. 

Effective conservation requires a change in our mindset: from a model which focuses on populations to one that recognizes the value of each individual animal. Allowing a species to reach endangered or critically endangered status is unacceptable, and a sad indictment on the shortcomings of the old conservation model. By taking care of and addressing the needs of these individuals, we can secure their populations and give them the best chance of survival.  

🚨 Almost there! We're so close to covering the funding we lost before December 31st.

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