Photos: Releasing Animals Back Into Their Habitats

Kazakh Ministry of Environment / Anadolu / Getty At the Ile-Balkhash Nature Reserve, a female Amur tiger named Umit is released into its natural habitat in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on August 3, 2026.

Umit (a Kazakh word for “hope”) was the first to be released out of four Amur (Siberian) tigers that were transferred from Russia to Kazakhstan.

Hauke-Christian Dittrich / DPA / Getty Shortly before being released into the wild at the eastern end of the German island of Juist, a seal named Ernie peeks out of a transport crate on August 13, 2026.

Hauke-Christian Dittrich / DPA / Getty Three seals, ( from left ) Ernie, Lucy, and Tiffy, scoot into the water during their release on the German island of Juist on August 13, 2026, after being successfully raised at the Norddeich Seal Sanctuary.

Maria Derhachova / Global Images Ukraine / Getty An employee of the Ukrainian Bat Center holds a bat in her hand while preparing it for flight on April 5, 2026, in Lviv, Ukraine.

All bat species found in Ukraine have the status of “vulnerable” or “rare” and are listed in the Red Book of Ukraine .

During the winter, volunteers care for bats that could not find a place for hibernation or are injured.

They are fed, treated, and sent into hibernation.

In spring, they are released into the natural environment so that they can continue their life in usual conditions.

Henning Kaiser / DPA / Getty After being released, wild horses discover their new habitat on the Sophienhöhe at the Hambach open-cast mine near Niederzier, Germany, as part of a larger recultivation project, on June 13, 2024.

Henning Kaiser / DPA / Getty During a release program organized by the State Office for Nature, Environment, and Climate of North Rhine-Westphalia, a field hamster is released into the wild above a pre-drilled burrow near Pulheim, Germany, on June 25, 2026.

Sean Gallup / Getty Lutz Krenkel, a fisherman with the Regional Fishery Office of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, prepares to release a three-year-old Baltic sturgeon into the Oder River as his colleague Stefanie Felsing assists, on May 24, 2023, in Lebus, Germany.

The sturgeon, along with 700 others that had been bred in captivity, was released into the Oder in an ongoing repopulation effort.

The Baltic sturgeon was once common to the entire Baltic Sea region, though overfishing and waterway development led to its practical extinction by the 1950s.