rearing

The infrastructure and know-how for rearing the creatures needs to be beefed up.

Is that the same tradition rearing its head again?

"We don't want to make missteps that could be very costly with our infrastructure when we have climate change rearing its ugly head," he said.

During his own working life, Freeman oversaw the rearing of 20,000 pups and helped found and develop a puppy walking programme, which continues today.

Some desert conservationists are critical of the efforts, saying the captive rearing program is essentially a smokescreen that distracts from the pressing need to conserve critical habitat.