Releasing rehabilitated wildlife successfully requires meeting standards for health, behavioral competence, and site selection, and post-release monitoring to assess welfare outcomes.
Release is often seen as the successful conclusion of rehabilitation, but for many animals it marks the beginning of a new welfare challenge. Animals must hunt, navigate territories, avoid predators, and interact with conspecifics - skills that atrophy in captivity. Measuring post-release survival, body condition, and behavior rather than simply counting released animals provides a true welfare outcome metric.