🚑 Triage & First Aid · 5 min
Stress is a clinical problem
Why this matters
Stress is the one complication you cause. It suppresses the immune system, stops animals eating, and turns treatable cases into non-releasable ones.
By the end of this lesson you will be able to
- Define stressors and describe their physiological effects
- List concrete ways to reduce stress in captivity
External influences that make an animal fight or flee are stressors. Captive wild animals receive so many of them that the stress itself causes harm. In trying to escape, the animal may injure itself or you. Stress makes an animal less interested in food, and it makes the immune system function less well, weakening its ability to fight infection and parasites. Secondary problems from stress and handling can render an animal non-releasable.
Lowering the load
- Minimize handling. Every exam has a cost.
- Provide sight barriers so animals cannot see other cages or people.
- Limit noise and talking.
- Give medications in food rather than handling the animal for injections, where that is appropriate.
- Provide hide boxes and plant material in the cage.
- Never house a prey species where it can see, hear or smell a predator.
Doing too much, too quickly can cause more stress and even death. Whenever possible, stress should be avoided while handling and examining an animal.
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.