What is Wild?

ZooFuss

ZooFuss

Member
A recent visit to South Africa brought up the question of what is wild?
We love zoos but love encountering animals in their natural environment even more.

Here are 2 scenarios involving animals that are still in their native areas.

1) A bird in a rehab centre is being treated for injuries and then it will be released. If we see this bird in its temporary cage could we say we had seen a wild bird and be able to mark it off our checklists?

2) A private wildlife reserve of about 38 square kilometres sits next to Kruger National Park and has white rhinos. We witness these on safari. We know that any large mammals on the reserve were either brought into or born into the reserve. The reserve also has predators (lions, hyenas etc.) but we do not know if the predators are fed to reduce their desire to hunt. Would you consider these wild rhinos?

We know that no animals seem to be without human interference these days even the rhinos in the 19000 square kilometres of Kruger National Park.

We would like to know what your thoughts are on this.
 
If the animals find enough food in their environment without food being supplement and they breed naturally I guess they are wild.
 
For my own observation lists I used to consider that an animal is wild when it's in a place by his own will, and not enclosed into a limited space. Hence, for my listings I include unleashed dogs, feral cats, unrided horses if they're not in enclosed space, city pigeons, etc. Also I considere punctual escapees as wild observations, but not animals that are free but being controlled for prevent escape (such as raptors in flight shows).

Definitely a bird enclosed in a rehab center never would count as wildlife for me. For the rhinos it will depend. If the reserve is not an enclosed space then the rhinos are wild. If it's completely enclosed, then I would considere the rhinos wild if they was here before the closing of the reserve, and not wild if they was brought after or born here.
 
For the first, it is being currently kept under human care, so it is captive.

For the second, is the land just a safe haven for the animals? If they are taken care of, they are in semi-captivity/captivity.
 
ThylacineAlive said:
@Kakapo what if the animal lives in an open area but was introduced/reintroduced?

~Thylo
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If the area is open (the animal can go out of the area when it want), then I count as wildlife (I mean, I would count for Big Year threads for example if I participate in this threads), whatever if it's native, introduced, reintroduced or exotic. I count for example a Grey Parrot flying over a beach in Tenerife island or even a black-throated magpie jay that escaped out of the aviary in Faunia but was resting nearby.
 
Kakapo said:
If the area is open (the animal can go out of the area when it want), then I count as wildlife (I mean, I would count for Big Year threads for example if I participate in this threads), whatever if it's native, introduced, reintroduced or exotic. I count for example a Grey Parrot flying over a beach in Tenerife island or even a black-throated magpie jay that escaped out of the aviary in Faunia but was resting nearby.
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Seems a bit suspect. Even you had witnessed it fly out of a door a keeper had left open?

I think one of the issues here is that as habitat spaces get more and more confined by development around them whether or not a reserve is a 'wild space' can become a more and more vexed question.
 
FunkyGibbon said:
Seems a bit suspect. Even you had witnessed it fly out of a door a keeper had left open?
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It's easier than checking doors, just there was an aviary with this species inside, and this individual was outside in a nearby zone with nobody looking at it. Since the aviary is walkthrough probably it escaped through visitors passing and it was able to surpass the double door/strap curtain or whatever. Why you considere a bit suspect?

FunkyGibbon said:
I think one of the issues here is that as habitat spaces get more and more confined by development around them whether or not a reserve is a 'wild space' can become a more and more vexed question.
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Development around a natural area is not enclosing an area. Every animal can enter a city even if the city surrounds completely a natural area, except if there are fencing around all the whole natural area for prevent big land animals to enter in the city (but I don't think that this ever happened in any occasion). Anyway even in that last case I would considere them wild if the animals were here before enclosing the natural area, as explained with the rhino case.
 
Kakapo said:
It's easier than checking doors, just there was an aviary with this species inside, and this individual was outside in a nearby zone with nobody looking at it. Since the aviary is walkthrough probably it escaped through visitors passing and it was able to surpass the double door/strap curtain or whatever. Why you considere a bit suspect?
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I mean it is suspect (questionable) to say such a bird would be 'wild'.

Kakapo said:
Development around a natural area is not enclosing an area. Every animal can enter a city even if the city surrounds completely a natural area, except if there are fencing around all the whole natural area for prevent big land animals to enter in the city (but I don't think that this ever happened in any occasion). Anyway even in that last case I would considere them wild if the animals were here before enclosing the natural area, as explained with the rhino case.
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Examples I am thinking of include the Delacour's langurs at Van Long, and Nairobe National Park.
The langurs could theoretically leave, there are certainly no fences, but there is no habitat left within reach so in practice they cant. Nairobe is bounded by fences and a river (which the ungulates cross) but everything inside lives, as I understand it, without human intervention. In both cases we agree that these animals are wild, I'm just trying to draw attention to some edge cases which make hard and fast rules difficult.
 
Kakapo said:
Hence, for my listings I include unleashed dogs, feral cats, unrided horses if they're not in enclosed space, city pigeons, etc.
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So, if you saw your neighbour's poodle walking along the road by itself, you would count that as a wild dog? And pretty much any domestic cat is a wild sighting because very few cats have any boundaries to confine them?
 
FunkyGibbon said:
I mean it is suspect (questionable) to say such a bird would be 'wild'.
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If you have different definition of wild for your own use, it's OK. I have mine.

FunkyGibbon said:
Examples I am thinking of include the Delacour's langurs at Van Long, and Nairobe National Park.
The langurs could theoretically leave, there are certainly no fences, but there is no habitat left within reach so in practice they cant. Nairobe is bounded by fences and a river (which the ungulates cross) but everything inside lives, as I understand it, without human intervention.
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I understood you the first time. Langurs don't abandon the area because they don't want: here is the correct habitat, the food sources and all that they know. Now imagine that a disaster (for example a fire) desolate the natural area. Langurs would enter the city to escape fire. Something that captive (as opposed to wild) animals never would be able to do.

FunkyGibbon said:
I'm just trying to draw attention to some edge cases which make hard and fast rules difficult.
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We are all aware of this having a grey area, like all the questions in Zoochat that are like this thread (Do you considere this as that or as this....?). The natural area enclosed by urban development can form part of this grey area, even when maybe is not the best example. Duck ponds in villages are maybe better examples for the grey area, especially if the ducks and geese was brought here by humans, belong to exotic species and hybrids, and are not wing-clipped, but the duck pond is totally open. Probably I would not count the species here in my wildlife lists. But why I don't count these ducks and I count the exactly equivalent case of the wild chipmunks of Wuppertal zoo?? I don't know. Maybe something related with the wide use of duck ponds. Hard to put limits here. It's what the grey areas are characterized for ;)

Chlidonias said:
So, if you saw your neighbour's poodle walking along the road by itself, you would count that as a wild dog? And pretty much any domestic cat is a wild sighting because very few cats have any boundaries to confine them?
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Usually the reply goes after the question, not before :D But despite being redundant... yes to both.
 
Kakapo said:
Usually the reply goes after the question, not before :D But despite being redundant... yes to both.
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What if the poodle is on its leash outside her yard, tied to the gatepost, and you run up and cut the leash. Is it then suddenly a wild dog?

What if your goldfish jumps out of its bowl? Wild fish?
 
I don't think a single escaped individual can be counted as wild, particularly if they haven't even left the grounds of the zoo! If they're from a naturalised population that is at least attempting to breed (whether escaped or reintroduced) then that would be different.

I also wouldn't count the chipmunks at Wuppertal either - I can see why you might, but for me it doesn't feel right. If they were to spread significantly beyond the zoo I probably would count them, though only if I saw them away from the zoo.

My lifer for Eastern Chipmunk is a sighting in the grounds of a zoo (Atlanta) in their natural range though! :D
 
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