What is 'wildlife'?

Agree, re mink. I think they are in the same category as eastern grey squirrel. Certainly plenty around where I live although you don’t see them very often. (There used to be a mink farm near here until some kind-hearted but misguided ecowarriers released them.)

just arrived, sorry
I realise you wrote ‘captive’
Plenty of captive-bred butterflies are released into the UK, not to mention turtles.
iSpot is (wholly?) about observing not recording (perhaps?)
As I understand it, iSpot Observations are not (yet?) harvested as Biological records

I think we should post what takes our fancy, I like the odd oddity, rainbows, hen’s eggs, snow snakes.
And I like to see how iSpot handles out of range Organisms, plenty of which are not in our dictionaries yet. One yesterday in Global iSpot

I suppose you might be suggesting that the Walrus in Orkney waters is not worth recording (though I’m pretty certain you’d like to see my Observation)
Then there is the issue of ‘regional spread’, the first valuable UK Harlequin Ladybird (for example) was recorded outside its known range - it MIGHT have been a captive.
Topical Bison bonasus (Linnaeus, 1758)
PLEASE can we have an Observation!

But if captive animals are released, they are no longer captive. I’m sure the eagle owl was still captive.

I am not keen on house plants and captive animals on iSpot but I accept there can be value in having a good photo of a captive organism to illustrate how to identify it. And by captive, I mean pets etc., not wild animals that have been caught for the purpose of photographing them. Once captive animals have been released or escaped into the wild, then yes, put them on iSpot. You might be observing the founder of a new invasive species.

Is iSpot distinguishing between observing and recording? I have always felt iSpot observations should be of a standard that they can be used as biological records, and I tend to boycott observers who refuse to put locality details of sufficient precision.

Bison is an interesting example. As of now, the first bison has been born in Kent (and the UK) for millennia. But the herd is behind high fences (because they are classified as ‘dangerous’ animals.
Personally, I am beginning to think that there ought to be some way of tagging captive-bred animals as such, in which case adding an observation would not muddy the waters as far as range was concerned. But I keep coming back to the point that we really need the OU to lay down some clearer guidelines.
Species such as Harlequin ladybird should, in my view, be recorded as they are freely breeding in the wild.

If I understand correctly there’s been a breeding herd of Bison at Kingussie for a number of years, which is kept in a similar situation to East Blean. (It is in the main drive-through enclosure with red deer and wild horses.) Their website mentions that they have one of the largest herds of bison in the country, which implies breeding elsewhere as well.

The press reports qualify the Kent birth as the first wild bison born in Britain for millenia.

It would seem that a bison was born at the Highland Wildlife Park in 2020, so the Kent claim is a bit of surprise.

It comes back to the same question - what is a ‘wild’ bison. The ranger at Blean in Kent was interviewed on TV. He said that he would like to see the fences removed so that the bison could roam free in the Ken countryside. This strikes me as a mad idea, given the motorways and suburban sprawl. But at what point does a small herd of bison become ‘free’ and ‘wildlife’?

Extending our horizons… what about a post of a lion from the Hoedspruit Limpopo reserve in SA? They roam, they hunt, they mate and they drink from residents’ swimming pools (who are not allowed to use chemicals on that acount). Residents don’t go out on foot at night.

Extending the debate a bit, what about all the things that live on/in the ‘non-wild’ animals (parasites, diseases, pollenators etc), it can be these things that can spread and cause more issues. Also even recording animals in zoos could be useful as they may not remain in the zoo especially if there is a storm. Living near Woburn and Whipsnade there have been a number of incidences of this and of course in the past there were much bigger issues with e.g. deer escaping.
Think the balance is about right at the moment with mostly organisms found outside the confines or gardens or zoos but some inside them too especially when it comes to insects or diseases on garden plants.