Soft Release of Wildlife
You wouldn't take a kid home from hospital, just released after a prolonged stay from an injury, and just take off the bandages and dump them out on the street, saying, "Ok, you're all fixed, go live your life!" You'd want to ensure the kid was fully healed, was confidently eating, drinking, staying clean and able to function fully and independently.
So too with animals that have recovered from injury or illness, or young orphans or abandoned youngsters, that have been raised by human foster-parents. It takes time to fully heal and build up strength again, and then to "re-wild" and learn once again how to cope in a world full of predators and dangers, where food isn't just delivered regularly to the doorstep.
It takes even longer for orphans hand-raised by humans, to adapt to life in the wild. The skills that their real parents would have taught them have to be somehow explained by another species, that may be incapable of using those skills. (Anyone who has ever tried to teach a hand-raised duck or goose to fly can probably relate)
Then rehabilitated and hand-raised animals have to learn the hardest thing of all - to STOP trusting in humans and their companion animals - because the humans, dogs, cats, and other animals they may encounter out in the wild most likely will NOT be the nurturing, cuddle, caring friend they have met during their stay in the foster-care world. Joeys and chicks and ducklings, all need to learn to hide from cats, flee from dogs, avoid domestic animals, stay away from traffic, and NOT trust random human strangers. Learning this lesson takes TIME.
Hence we have the concept of SOFT RELEASE - Think of it like "Finishing School for Young Wildlife"" or a type of "Supervised Gap Year" but on a shorter time scale. The way soft release is run depends on the species, the location, and the individual situation of the wildlife carer and the animals involved. Every individual is different, they all have their special stories. What remains constant is the notion of a gradual increase in independence accompanied by a slow removal of support structures and human interference in their lives.
For release of arboreal animals, such as Ringtail Possums, Gliders, Phascogales, even Koalas, one system is to build portable enclosures such as aviaries on trailers, or kit-form enclosures, that can be easily moved from one soft-release host property to another. These specially made "Possum Caravans" are fitted out with all the comforts of home that animals had while in care, but once setup at the host property that will become their forever home, they can see, hear, smell and learn about the new environment, but from the safety of their familiar enclosure. Their carer will come out each day, for a week or perhaps longer, with food and anything else they need, and check how they are settling in. They may also setup monitoring cameras to check out what is happening when humans are not watching (Are predators lurking outside? Are the animals showing signs they want to leave enclosure, or are they still nervous? Are they eating food brought in from the host property, or only food brought in from carer's garden? ) Once the soft-release animals show they are ready to explore beyond their enclosure, a small door is opened allowing them to access nearby trees, other nestboxes that will be installed, and explore a little, but allowing them to come back to the safety of their caravan. During this time, the carer will still be coming out to check on them, and monitoring their progress. Once the animals start spending most of their time outside the caravan, then the carer can come out for a final check-up and some farewell photos, then take away the portable enclosure, ready for the next group of youngsters, leaving the now independent animals to live their best lives.
Photo credit: Heidi Johnson
