Conservation
Wild Animals
A species is considered to be wild when it has evolved generation after generation in its natural environment without human intervention. Therefore, wild animals have adaptations and behaviors that allow them to survive in their natural habitat, taking advantage of its resources and fulfilling a fundamental function in the ecosystem in which they live.
For these and many other reasons, wild animals are not suitable for coexistence with humans or domestic animals. Keeping them as pets condemns them to confinement, and they often suffer from nutritional deficiencies, growth problems, stress and diseases transmitted by us or our domestic animals.
A wild animal removed from its natural environment is not a domestic animal; it is still a wild animal but subjected to a life of confinement.
Wildlife Rehabilitation
At El Potrero Reserve we work together with different organizations and institutions collaborating with the rehabilitation of native species kidnapped from illegal wildlife possession or trafficking to return them to their life in the wild. We also work to raise awareness about the problem of mascotism, a practice that unfortunately is still very common and is often naturalized.
Each story is different and has its own complexities. Some animals arrive at the Reserve as a result of voluntary surrender from domestic tenancies where they were raised as pets; others are found in accidents in the field or on the road; and there are also those that arrive from public agencies seized from illegal trafficking.
Quarantine, veterinary controls, cures, readaptation… the processes and times depend on each story, always with the hope that they can be returned to their natural environment and their life in freedom… from which they should never have been taken.
