Sources
Where the claims on this site come from.
Every statement anywhere on this site about the world rather than about ARK is numbered, and the numbers lead here. Follow a marker from any page and you land on the entry it points at.
- 1.
Hanson M, Hollingshead N, Schuler K, Siemer WF, Martin P, Bunting EM. Species, causes, and outcomes of wildlife rehabilitation in New York State. PLOS ONE. 2021;16(9):e0257675. 58,185 cases across the three reporting years ending 2012, 2013 and 2014. The study describes archived paper records and handwritten logs, states that “Data on these handwritten logs… were manually transcribed into digital spreadsheets”, and records that “reporting errors and inconsistencies both within and between rehabilitation centers occurred”, ranging from spelling errors to misidentified species to failure to report distress causes and final disposition. Records that were incomplete were excluded from the analysis.
- 2.
AZA, the Zoological Association of America and the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries each require accredited members to maintain an animal records system. None of them requires a specific vendor's software.
- 3.
Association of Zoos and Aquariums, Accreditation Standards and Related Policies, 2026 edition. The animal records standards accommodate paper systems alongside electronic ones and require that daily records be entered the same day or by the end of the next working day.
- 4.
Record retention periods vary by the authority you hold. Licensed exhibitors under the Animal Welfare Act keep records for one year after an animal is disposed of or dies (9 CFR 2.80), longer where other law applies; federal migratory bird rehabilitation permits require five years (50 CFR 21.76). State schedules differ again. Check the ones that bind you rather than trusting a vendor's number.
- 5.
Annual reporting deadlines that are confirmed: California, 14 CCR 679, form DFW 486, due 31 January; Washington, WAC 220-450-130, due 31 January; New York, Department of Environmental Conservation rehabilitator log, due 1 December. Other states differ and several could not be verified.
Sources without a link are cited by name, section and date. Where a phrase appears in quotation marks, the words inside them are the source's.