Hand rearing
From hand-rearing is used when animal boy of people are brought up. Hand-rearing occurs in zoos when mothers die before the young can take care of themselves or when they do not adopt their young.
For hand-raised animals, getting used to or imprinting on humans can become a problem, as there is a risk of being poorly or not at all integrated into groups of conspecifics. This is especially true for animals that are to be released into the wild . One problem is often the failure to learn typical behavior patterns such as foraging and hunting, as well as raising one's own young. Therefore, care is taken to keep the animals in close proximity to people only as long as necessary and to “cut the cord” from the carers as quickly as possible.
Because of this problem, the hand-rearing of zoo animals is often criticized, for example with the polar bear Knut . Conversely, the renouncement of hand-rearing and the resulting possible death of a young animal can trigger great outrage in the media, for example among the conspecifics of the polar bear Knut, Flocke , for whom the carers finally decided to hand-rearing after criticism.
In agriculture , getting animals used to humans is of great benefit. This also applies to pet breeding. This effect is desirable in both areas.