Freeing poached wildlife ‘safely’ is a dangerous myth – new study

The moment a cage door is opened and an animal released is often seen as the ultimate good news. When a captive wild animal is freed, the media often applauds, public support swells and donations to welfare charities surge.

But as a new study by myself and colleagues reveals, there is a dark side to returning animals to the wild.

Illegal trafficking in wildlife yields billions of dollars per year, making it one of the highest grossing illegal trades. It poses a serious risk to conservation, so it’s no wonder the confiscation of an illegally trafficked animal feels like a win.

One of the problems is that for many species, especially smaller species perceived as less charismatic, or less ecologically important, little is known what happens after the animal is set “free”.

In our new study published in Global Ecology and Conservation, my colleagues and I tracked nine individual animals of the endangered Bengal slow loris, a small primate with large round brown eyes found in tropical forests throughout southern Asia. We showed that the wild is not necessarily freedom. Seven of the nine animals died within weeks of release, most killed by resident slow lorises.

Ten species of the slow loris can be found from India to the Philippines. All are threatened by trade in various guises – including as pets and tourist photo props, traditional “medicines” and meat, and even black magic.

Despite being legally protected in all the countries where they live, trade in these nocturnal primates persists locally and internationally. It is fuelled in part by viral social media videos of smuggled lorises kept as pets. With their large eyes and teddy bear-like faces, they are seen as an adorable companion, with online videos inciting viewers to “want one”. They certainly do not make good pets – from scent marking every space with foul-smelling urine, to a bite that can kill a human.

Indeed, they are the only venomous primate, with sharp teeth used to inject venom into other lorises as a means of territorial defence. Often in trade these teeth are ripped out or clipped to make them “suitable pets”.

Despite the evolutionary uniqueness of the slow loris, only a handful of studies have been conducted in the wild. This creates a disconnect.

Welfare agencies and government agents are often pressured to release these primates to the wild. But a lack of funding, manpower and knowledge of their behaviour means most reintroductions of loris species do not follow international guidelines. For example, agencies must know which species they are releasing; slow loris species may look very similar but they are genetically and behaviourally unique. It’s almost impossible for non-experts to tell them apart.

Freedom or death trap?

In our study, the Bangladesh Forest Department allowed us to follow the fate of nine released Bengal slow lorises. The site, Lawachara National Park in the country’s northeast, has been used for relocating lorises for decades. With a high density of slow lorises in the area, conservationists recommend against more releases. A variety of sociopolitical and logistic factors, however, means that releases continue. For example, the fact that these releases are seen as good news stories.

Within ten days of release, three lorises died, with four others surviving only a few weeks more. For four of seven whose bodies could be examined, all died of fatal venomous bite wounds from resident lorises.

After eight months of study, the two survivors had not settled into a permanent area. Wild slow loris typically achieve this within a few months of dispersal, settling with a mate to raise families with for at least 12 years.

This suggests that even if an animal survives “getting back to the wild”, they may still struggle to find a permanent home. A species with extremely territorial behaviour, these “floating” individuals are often killed by resident slow lorises.

In Bangladesh, slow lorises are often “rescued” from agricultural areas, where they can live happily if the right food plants persist, because locals are not familiar with nocturnal animals and think they have “wandered in”. Thus, the forest that people perceive as a good place for them is alien, and one in which ultimately, returned lorises may never be able to find a home.

Other studies also have found high death rates or lack of “settling” of released slow lorises. Projects in Vietnam and Java have yielded similar results, including reintroduced lorises killing the resident animals, as well as animals starving to death in the new habitats.

Poor release practices have become so common that the IUCN Red List includes releases of slow lorises as one of the threats to their survival. Despite this increasing evidence, incidences of up to 65 lorises released at a single time are sometimes reported as good news.

Slow lorises are just one of many lesser-known mammals frequently traded and released. These animals are easy to pick up and hold because their strategy is sometimes to curl into a silent ball of terror, instead of biting. They may even be bought by tourists at wildlife markets and placed somewhere where the purchaser perceives to be wild.

Other examples include civets, otters and various monkeys. Indeed, in the case of Brazil’s marmosets, monkeys released by pet owners threaten to out-compete native species or mate with them, leading to hyrid offspring.

This scenario is not exclusive to the tropics. In the UK, well meaning people often move hedgehogs and other animals long distances away from where they found them. However hedgehogs are homebodies who need to stay close to their favourite haunts, where they know where to find shelter and food.

As appealing as it is to put animals back to the wild, for many species, their only hope may truly be a lifetime in captivity. Even when these animals survive, their ecological role is lost.

Anna Nekaris receives funding from Plumploris e.V.