So if mammals at a rehabilitation center that were wild, and will be released into the wild again, can be marked “wild” instead of “captive,” then what about reared caterpillars/pupae/moths? Seems like essentially the same situation—the individual(s) were wild and will be wild again (for those of us who release the adult moths and butterflies). I’ve seen some users marking these observations captive, and some not. I’d be in favor of considering them wild myself, since this wouldn’t harm the data in any way I can see, assuming the location of the obs is where the specimens were gathered. Also, it would have the significant benefit of causing more larvae and pupae (usually the ones with the most conclusive IDs) to show up in Explore, thus helping others identify their own. Thoughts?
An animal temporarily in captivity, however you define temporary, is wild if it was taken from the wild. This could include animals in rehab, or being reared to an adult stage, or being held for photos. I think the key factor is that the animal originated in the wild and has location data from where it was taken.
In the case of rearing caterpillars to adult, there is no way of knowing if that organism would have survived to that stage had it not been for captivity and exclusion of predators. The observation “at the point in time of capture” can be marked or treated as wild, but by the time it pupates it has benefited from the protection of the captor, so is no longer wild. Once released, at the moment and place of release I would consider it captive, but if seen subsequent to that then I would consider it wild.
I think it is the same for animals too, but this is just my understanding of what wild/captive means. I think as long as you have read the iNat guidelines, put thought into what others have said, and act in good faith, however you choose to set the captive/wild flag is fine as we all get a vote and the system determines an aggregate position from those votes.
What also comes along with raising short lived invertebrates is that their developmental time might be changed in captivity, so that they might be e.g. ahead of their natural time of hatching
Hmm. I can see some merit to the argument about reared caterpillars developing at different rates, but I’m not sure it’s significant enough in most cases; caterpillars in the wild develop at varying rates, too, depending on them as individuals, the quality of the host plant, and maybe whether they’ve found natural/artificial warm spots. I would make an exception for species being reared during freezing temperatures, since those are times when their development schedule could be thrown off significantly—they should probably be marked captive.
As for whether the particular individuals reared would have survived in the wild or not, that doesn’t seem to me to matter, as long as some member of their species could have survived there at that time–which seems highly likely, if there were adults laying eggs then. (For those following the comparison, note that rehabilitated animals might not have survived either without intervention.) It’s not like we’re trying to track each individual moth on iNat–just the presence of populations.
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