| Abstrakt: |
There is a current global biodiversity loss at a rate 100 to 1000 times greater than the rate of natural extinction. Human activity, specifically human population growth and the necessary actions to sustain them, has led to habitat destruction, the rise of invasive species, climate change, and over exploitation of natural resources. In South Africa, an increasing number of nonhuman primates have entered into rehabilitation centers due to animal-human conflicts. The high accumulation of these primates has led to an increase in the need for group formation and releases at rehabilitation centers. Although the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has published generic guidelines for the release of nonhuman primates, it recommends species-specific guidelines be published for optimal release success. Additionally, they emphasize the importance of following best practice management approaches to maximize conservation efforts and individual welfare of displaced species, while also aiming to provide guidance on the best practice approaches. To date, there are only a few published species-specific rehabilitation and release protocols for primates. We, therefore, created species-specific guidelines for the rehabilitation of chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) for reinforcement. The proposed guidelines are based on psychological well-being, social and individual behaviors, and the ecology of chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) for rehabilitation, release, and post-release assessments. Our guidelines include seven distinct steps: arrival, conspecific resocialization, housing, training, and preparation, pre-release assessment, release-site selection, release, and post-release assessment. We provide detailed information and examples of each step based on the protocols from the Riverside Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre (Riverside), a rehabilitation center in the Limpopo province of South Africa that has had successful rehabilitation and release projects for chacma baboons, among other primates. Since rehabilitation centers are limited by factors such as location and resources, this is meant to be a "best practice" model for this specific baboon species. The goal of these guidelines is to help assist future rehabilitation and releases, as well as provide a foundation to those who wish to modify the guidelines to create other species-specific rehabilitation steps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
