ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that conservationists ought to adopt a new approach, allowing for a greater emphasis upon the value of the individual. It argues that wildlife rehabilitation ought to be considered a legitimate and worthwhile conservation strategy, two worries arose. Firstly, there was the worry that rehabilitation would compromise the conservation values of natural selection and fitness. Secondly, there was the worry that concern for the individual could not be reconciled with the holistically driven conservation strategy of culling. The rehabilitation of oiled birds is complex and fraught with difficulties and there is evidence to suggest that the survival rate is low. Though wildlife rehabilitation is merely one of a whole range of human influences upon natural selection, the different influences require differing evaluation. The culling of individual animals is a holistically driven conservation strategy. The rehabilitation of oiled birds has, in addition to its value on humanitarian/animal welfare grounds, a distinctive and important value on conservation grounds.
