BARC :: Houston Wild Animal Info :: Wild Animal Classifications

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Wild Animal Classifications

A wild animal lives in natural environments. It has certain inborn behavior patterns and also develops learned behavior to survive in competitive natural environments. It is not possible for a wild animal to adapt to traditional household living and pet owners cannot influence behavior patterns of wild animals. Wild animals are unpredictable and instinctual; when forced into captivity destructive behavior will occur.

A wild animal can pose serious a health threat since we have no way of knowing what diseases the animal may have been exposed to in its natural environment. Diseases such as rabies can have extremely long incubation periods that can last several weeks or even several months. Wild animals also harbor parasites that can be lethal, especially to infants and young children. Internal parasites such as ascarid worms, tapeworms, flukes, and protozoa can cause debilitating and often fatal diseases in humans. External parasites such as ticks and fleas transmit Rocky Mountain spotted fever, bubonic plague, and other serious diseases. Primates can get and transmit tuberculosis, the common cold, measles, chicken pox and parasites; they bite and their bites can become infected. Reptiles carry salmonella and harbor dangerous bacteria in their mouths that can infect when they bite. All wild animals and reptiles are potentially aggressive.