Education, exhibits and permits

Why this matters

The line between educating the public and exhibiting an animal is a permitting line, and crossing it puts your license at risk.

By the end of this lesson you will be able to

Distinguish a rehabilitation case from an educational animal

Name the permits required to use live animals in programs

Apply sound teaching practice when presenting to the public

Special permitting is required to house and use wildlife in public programs. Licensed rehabilitators are prohibited from showing rehabilitation cases to the public.

A USDA Class C Exhibitor's Permit is required to exhibit mammals for educational purposes.
A USFWS Migratory Bird Education Exhibition permit is required to exhibit migratory birds.
A wildlife rehabilitation license does not allow you to keep animals long-term for educational or scientific purposes, and additional permits are needed to hold body parts, nests or eggs.

If you do teach

Educational animals are not spare rehabilitation patients. They need at least as much room and exercise as a patient does, and their temperament has to suit a life in captivity. Some highly strung species never adjust, live in constant stress, and may develop stereotypical or self-destructive behavior. For those animals, euthanasia is the kinder option.

Teaching adults and children

Programs work better when the audience does something rather than watches something. With small children, concrete objects (a feather, a nest, a track cast) beat abstractions. Slides and presentations are a supporting tool, not the program. And a live animal is not a petting opportunity: touching stresses the animal and teaches exactly the wrong lesson about wildlife.

This lesson is part of the NY Wildlife Rehabilitator Exam course. Open it in the course to answer the retrieval checks that go with it, track what you have read, and quiz the whole unit. Lessons, quizzes and the glossary are free.

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