Management implications for releasing orphaned, captive‐reared bears back to the wild

Orphaned bears have been captive‐reared and released back to the wild for more than 3 decades, often without a clear understanding of their fates because post‐release monitoring is not a common practice. As a result, management agencies lack efficacy data on post‐release success rates and are often reluctant to encourage increased use of this technique. We evaluated the potential management and conservation implications of releasing captive‐reared bears by documenting post‐release survival, cause‐specific mortality, human conflict activity, movements, and reproduction for 550 American black, brown and Asiatic black bears reared in 12 captive‐rearing programs around the world. Survival rates in these programs ranged from 0.50 to 1.00 and were similar among the 3 species. The primary causes of mortality were sport hunting and road kills for American black bears, intra‐specific predation and illegal kills for brown bears, and natural mortalities and illegal kills for Asiatic black bears. Although American and Asiatic black bears were involved in conflicts post‐release, the majority of released bears (94%) were not documented in conflict situations. Movement patterns of captive‐reared American black and brown bears showed no homing tendencies toward their rearing facility. Twenty captive‐reared bears produced 21 litters. Our analyses reduce many of the uncertainties surrounding the fate of bears released as yearlings and provide evidence that releasing captive‐reared bears is a defensible management alternative. © 2015 The Wildlife Society.