History Main / RaisedInCaptivity

* ''WesternAnimation/Madagascar1'' is about captive raised animals trying to make it back to their homeland. When they get there things do not go well. For example, the lion is horrified to learn that he will need to eat the relatives of his friends to survive.

[[folder: Film - Live Action ]]

* ''Film/TwoBrothers'' has a pair of tiger cubs that are made pets after their mother is killed. When they break free, the characters express the fear that they may end up becoming man-eaters because they never learned to hunt.

* Mostly averted or downplayed in the Film/JurassicPark-Film/JurassicWorld movies despite most of the dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals being born and raised in captivity. When the park(s) collapsed and they have escaped, the animals have managed to easily transition to life in the wild.

[[folder: Film - Animation ]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Rio}}'', Blu is a tame blue macaw, and spends the middle of the film chained (by smugglers) to Jewel, a wild blue macaw. Blu finds the jungles outside the city to be particularly frightening, mainly because of his inability to fly (though most of the film takes place in the city, where Blu is not entirely so helpless). Blu's inability to survive in the wild becomes a bigger plot point in the sequel, ''WesternAnimation/{{Rio 2}}'', where he and his family travel to the Amazon.

* In the Creator/{{Disney}} AnimatedAdaptation of ''WesternAnimation/TheFoxAndTheHound'', Tod, a fox raised by a kindly old woman, initially struggles to survive as a wild fox when his adoptive mother releases him into the woods to save him from a neighboring [[Literature/MobyDick Captain Ahab-like]] hunter. He adapts after a few scenes.
* In ''WesternAnimation/BaltoIIWolfQuest'', Balto's wolf-dog daughter Aleu (who inherited more wolf attributes than her siblings) was raised around humans. She runs off into the wild and ends up [[AChildShallLeadThem leading a pack]] of wolves.

[[folder: Anime & Manga ]]

* Parodied in an episode of ''Anime/{{Osomatsu San}}'' where Jyushumatsu aspires to become a dolphin. He becomes like a dolphin and escapes with the dolphins into the sea.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar}}'' is about captive raised animals trying to make it back to their homeland. When they get there things do not go well. For example, the lion is horrified to learn that he will need to eat the relatives of his friends to survive.

* Lusa from ''Literature/SeekerBears'' is a black bear cub born and raised in a zoo. She has always wanted to live in the forest but her parents (one of which was born in the wild) discourage her dreams. When she finally escapes she has a difficult time adjusting to life as a wild bear, especially since she's at an age where she should still be with her mother. She's presented as the NaiveNewcomer of the group (with the other three cubs being born in the wild).

* Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/TimeEnoughForLove''. [[MarySue Lazarus Long]] told an anecdote about a fox he raised from a kit and tried to release into the wild; it never even left its cage and nearly starved to death.

* A large portion of ''Film/BornFree'' centers around a couple trying to rehabilitate a lion raised in captivity to the wild. They do manage it, but it's a very difficult process. ((Justified|Trope}} as the film is BasedOnATrueStory and is actually fairly accurate to the reality of the story it's based on (see Real Life).

* Animal rights groups such as [=PETA=] have been known to take animals and dump them into the wild. In nearly every case, this ended badly as the newly-freed animals starved, died of exposure, or other ways, such as one high-profile case where minks were released from a fur farm and were subsequently killed trying to cross a busy road nearby. In another misguided endeavour, one group ended up releasing a bunch of rabbits who had been raised in a lab. Understandably, most quickly died.

* ''Born Free'' is all about trying to rehabilitate such an animal (specifically a lion) to the wild.
-->"Born free, as free as the wind blows..."

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_the_lion Christian the Lion]] is a real life subversion. He was raised as a pet in London during the 1960's. When he grew too large to live in the city, he was taken to a wildlife preserve where he adapted very quickly becoming the leader of his very own pride.

* In ''Discworld/{{Eric}}'', Rincewind gets rid of the annoying parrot by giving it to a jungle explorer, saying it's cruel to keep it in the city. Despite [[PollyWantsAMicrophone the parrot itself]] insisting "I was ''born'' in a cage, you raving wossname!"

* In the Creator/{{Disney}} AnimatedAdaptation of ''Disney/TheFoxAndTheHound'', Tod, a fox raised by a kindly old woman, initially struggles to survive as a wild fox when his adoptive mother releases him into the woods to save him from a neighboring [[Literature/MobyDick Captain Ahab-like]] hunter. He adapts after a few scenes.

* In ''WesternAnimation/BaltoIIWolfQuest'', Balto's wolf-dog daughter Aleu (who inherited more wolf attributes than her siblings) runs off into the wild and ends up [[AChildShallLeadThem leading a pack]] of wolves.

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[[AC:{{Film}} - Animation]]

[[AC:{{Film}} - Live Action]]
* ''Born Free'' is all about trying to rehabilitate such an animal (specifically a lion) to the wild.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

[[AC: LiveActionTV]]
* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'': In ''[[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S03E03PodPeople Pod People]]'', the boy Tommy hatches and raises an alien, who he names Trumpy. At the end, Tommy figures out he can't keep the alien anymore, so he sets Trumpy loose in the forest.

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[[AC:RealLife]]

* It isn't unknown for people to release their tame, exotic pet animals into the wild. This may-or-may-not work depending on the animal and the environment. Sometimes animals actually thrive and become an invasive species, but usually they die for various reasons.

SubTrope of FishOutOfWater, often the result of PetBabyWildAnimal. Compare RaisedByOrcs, RaisedByWolves, EscapedFromTheLab, and APetIntoTheWild. Contrast with FromStrayToPet, where a stray domestic animal gets adopted,

* In ''WesternAnimation/BaltoIIWolfQuest'', Balto's daughter Aleu (who inherited more wolf attributes than her siblings) runs off into the wild and ends up [[AChildShallLeadThem leading a pack]] of wolves.

* Animal rights groups such as [=PETA=] have been known to take animals and dump them into the wild. In one misguided endeavour, one group ended up releasing a bunch of rabbits who had been raised in a lab. Understandably, most quickly died.
* It isn't unknown for people to release their tame pet animals into the wild. This may-or-may-not work depending on the animal and the environment. Sometimes animals actually thrive and become an invasive species, but usually they die for various reasons.
* There have been multiple incidents where an AnimalWrongsGroup broke into a research facility or farm and turned all the animals loose. In nearly every case, this ended badly as the newly-freed animals starved, died of exposure, or other ways, such as one high-profile case where minks were released from a fur farm and were subsequently killed trying to cross a busy road nearby.

* Cats are stereotyped as adjusting to the wild easily, but this is actually a myth. Cats that have spent their life indoors are not magically suddenly going to develop hunting and other survival skills, and even indoor-outdoor cats that already know how to hunt will struggle to survive in the wild like every wild animal does. For these reasons, abandoning cats to the wild is very cruel.

* Averted with Bagheera in Creator/RudyardKipling's original ''Literature/JungleBook''. He was raised in the Maharajah's menagerie but had no trouble adapting to jungle life after his escape.

* Creator/JackLondon's two most famous novels
** ''Literature/WhiteFang'': Inverted. A wild wolf-dog learns to be a pet. The normal dogs treat him poorly because they can smell he's part wolf and he does not adapt well. He is then sold off and forced into illegal dog fighting until he almost dies.
** ''Literature/TheCallOfTheWild'': Averted. A dog who grew up on a manor in California is taken to the Yukon and made a sled dog, forced to fight the other dogs for survival. Later he starts hunting and takes over a wolf pack.

* Animal rights groups such as [=PETA=] have been known to take animals and dump them into the wild. In one misguided endeavour, one group ended up releasing a bunch of rabbits who had been raised in a lab. Understandably, most died.

* Cats are stereotyped as adjusting to the wild easily, but this is actually a myth. Cats that have spent their life indoors are not magically suddenly going to develop hunting and other survival skills, and even indoor-outdoor cats that already know how to hunt will struggle to survive in the wild like every wild animal does. For these reasons, abandoning cats to the wild is very cruel.

* It isn't unknown for people to release their tame pet animals into the wild. This may-or-may-not work depending on the animal and the environment. Sometimes animals actually thrive and become an invasive species, but usually they die for various reasons.

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* The Creator/DisneyChannel made-for-TV movie ''Cheetah The Hunted'' was about a domesticated cheetah that had to be trained to live in the wild.

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** Blue is a wolf-dog who decides to join the wolves on their journey after learning she's part-wolf.