Wild habitats, managed habitats and conservation work

The short answer

• Wild: the animal lives freely in a natural or semi-natural habitat and is not fed or confined by people.
• Managed care: the animal lives in a zoo, aquarium, sanctuary, rehabilitation centre or similar facility, where people provide food, shelter and veterinary care.
• Conservation work: action to protect species or habitats, which can take place in either setting.

These categories overlap, but footage should never blur them. A close-up from an aquarium tank is not a wild scene, and a rehabilitation video is not a habitat documentary.

Why the label matters

Behaviour in managed care can differ from behaviour in the wild: animals there do not need to find food, avoid predators or travel. Close, calm footage of an animal in a facility can be genuinely educational. Presented as wild, it gives a misleading picture of the animal’s life, and of how easy it is to get close to wild animals.

Telling them apart in footage

What accreditation tells you

Several bodies accredit facilities that keep animals:

• The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) accredits zoos and aquariums against its standards. (Its website blocks automated checks, so we could not quote it directly. Visit the link in the sources.)
• The Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS) runs an accreditation programme for sanctuaries and rescue and rehabilitation centres. It says its aim is to help donors, grantmakers, supporters and legislators tell genuine sanctuaries apart from organisations that use the labels “sanctuary” or “rescue” without providing good care.

Accreditation is a useful signal, not a guarantee. A missing accreditation does not prove poor care, but it means you should look for other evidence.

What “threatened” means

The IUCN Red List assesses the extinction risk of species worldwide. When a film says a species is endangered, you can check its current Red List assessment, which may have changed since the film was made.

Questions to ask about animals kept by people

The Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition suggests asking questions like these when you see animals kept by people, especially in content presented as cute or entertaining:

• Is the animal wild by nature?
• Is it free to walk away from the situation?
• Does the species normally live in groups?
• What will its life look like when fully grown?
• Is it behaving in ways that go against its natural instincts?
• Does someone’s good intention change whether the situation is harmful?

How we apply this

Every item in our catalogue has a habitat label. Footage from aquariums, zoos and sanctuaries carries the Aquarium, zoo or sanctuary habitat tag, so you can include or exclude it on the Explore page.