Translocation digest: January 2014

News:

7th reintroduced bighorn reportedly dies in Catalinas, USA

Endangered northern cricket frog may be reintroduced to Long Island

Beaver found wild in Devon, UK, for the first time since the twelfth century.

Wolf reintroduction expanded to North Arizona

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has completed a programmatic safe harbor agreement for the black-footed ferret in cooperation with state, tribal, federal and local partners in 12 states

Post re-introduction drive, Panna Tiger Reserve, India, reclaims its tiger populace

Publications:

Baker, K., Lambdon, P., Jones, E., Pellicer, J., Stroud, S., Renshaw, O., Niissalo, M., Corcoran, M., Clubbe, C. and Sarasan, V. (2014), Rescue, ecology and conservation of a rediscovered island endemic fern (Anogramma ascensionis): ex situ methodologies and a road map for species reintroduction and habitat restoration. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 174: 461–477. doi: 10.1111/boj.12131

Earnhardt, J., Vélez-Valentín, J., Valentin, R., Long, S., Lynch, C. and Schowe, K. (2014), The Puerto Rican parrot reintroduction program: Sustainable management of the aviary population. Zoo Biol., 33: 89–98. doi: 10.1002/zoo.21109

Owen, A., Wilkinson, R. and Sözer, R. (2014), In situ conservation breeding and the role of zoological institutions and private breeders in the recovery of highly endangered Indonesian passerine birds. International Zoo Yearbook, 48: 199–211. doi: 10.1111/izy.12052

Smyser, T. J. and Swihart, R. K. (2014), Allegheny woodrat (Neotoma magister) captive propagation to promote recovery of declining populations. Zoo Biol., 33: 29–35. doi: 10.1002/zoo.21114

Wiedmann, B. P. and Sargeant, G. A. (2014), Ecotypic variation in recruitment of reintroduced bighorn sheep: Implications for translocation. The Journal of Wildlife Management, 78: 394–401. doi: 10.1002/jwmg.669

Translocation digest: December 2013

Projects:

Salmon reintroduction to Canadian Columbia River recommended ...Revelstoke Times Review Salmon migrating upstream in the Bonneville Dam fish ladder. Reintroduction of salmon to the Canadian Columbia River has emerged as an issue in ... See all stories on this topic »
Salmon reintroduction emerges as CRT negotiation issueArrow Lakes News If all goes according to Bill Green's plan, the first reintroduced Columbia River salmon will cross the U.S.-Canada border in 2016, 78 years after the ... See all stories on this topic » 'Rare' Lizard juniper plant reintroduction hope by conservationistsBBC News Conservationists hope to save an "extremely rare" plant which is only found in the wild in the UK in one valley in Cornwall. The team from the Eden ... See all stories on this topic » Idaho's version of “reindeer” more elusive than everThe Spokesman Review (blog) Habitat changes over the past 100 years have continued to limit the success of the cariboureintroduction. A 2012 survey turned up only 27 animals in ... See all stories on this topic » It's no to reintroducing white tigers in MPHindu Business Line The National Tiger Conservation Authority has refused to give its nod forreintroduction of white tigers in Madhya Pradesh saying they have no ... See all stories on this topic » Hindu Business Line Black-footed ferret population recovery plan includes re-introduction ...Topeka Capital Journal The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plan would reintroduce ferrets in new areas while officials work more closely with private landowners to avoid a ... See all stories on this topic » San Francisco Chronicle 10 yrs of Black Rhino re-introductionZambia Daily Mail (blog) Simply put, the 10th anniversary of the re-introduction of the black rhino to the North Luangwa National Park recorded a good feedback from the ... See all stories on this topic » Red-legged frogs may hop again soon in the Santa Monica MountainsLos Angeles Times ... biologists start alerting curious visitors to keep their distance from the first red-legged frogreintroduction effort ever attempted in Southern California. See all stories on this topic » State to proceed with Madison bighorn sheep reintroductionMontana Standard With Thursday's approval from the Fish & Wildlife Commission, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks will move forward with the reintroduction of bighorn sheep to ... See all stories on this topic » Victoria to consider reintroduction of alpine cattle grazingThe Guardian The Victorian government says it will consider the controversialreintroduction of cattle grazing in the state's alpine regions if given the go-ahead by federal ... See all stories on this topic » The Guardian Reintroducing eagles to California's Channel IslandsTri-City Weekly It was 1979, when then-Humboldt State University undergraduate Garcelon proposedreintroducing Bald eagles to the islands. While the raptor had previously ... See all stories on this topic » Ratty returns to riverbank after absence of a decadeNorth Devon Journal A much loved animal which has become extinct in a huge tract of the South West is beingreintroduced – Martin Hesp went to Bude Marsh to find out more. See all stories on this topic » Boehle column: Reintroducing American chestnut to the ...Zanesville Times Recorder Be part of the reintroduction of what was once a major species throughout the ... Estimates are that reintroduction could take decades or even centuries, with ... See all stories on this topic » Publications:

ASLAN, C. E., ZAVALETA, E. S., TERSHY, B., CROLL, D. and ROBICHAUX, R. H. (2014), Imperfect Replacement of Native Species by Non-Native Species as Pollinators of Endemic Hawaiian Plants. Conservation Biology, 28: 478–488. doi: 10.1111/cobi.12193

de Avelar Azeredo, R. M. and Simpson, J. G. P. (2014), Rearing the Extinct in the Wild Alagoas curassow Pauxi mitu for future reintroduction programmes. International Zoo Yearbook, 48: 29–38. doi: 10.1111/izy.12047

Liu, S. C., Gillespie, J., Atchison, N. and Andrew, P. (2014), The recovery programme for the Regent honeyeater Anthochaera phrygia: an example of conservation collaboration in Australia. International Zoo Yearbook, 48: 83–91. doi: 10.1111/izy.12040

Raigoza Figueras, R. (2014), Scarlet macaw Ara macao cyanoptera conservation programme in Mexico. International Zoo Yearbook, 48: 48–60. doi: 10.1111/izy.12049

IUCN/SSC Guidelines for Reintroductions and Other Conservation Translocations - final version released

Just a quick update to let everyone know that the fully formatted version of the IUCN/SSC Guidelines for Reintroductions and Other Conservation Translocations (including annexes) has now been released and you can get a copy by emailing me: s.e.dalrymple@gmail.com or following this link:
http://www.issg.org/pdf/publications/RSG_ISSG-Reintroduction-Guidelines-2013.pdf

It's the same in content as the 'interim' version which I know many of you have seen but the final release looks nicer and has the full citation details:

IUCN/SSC (2013). Guidelines for Reintroductions and Other Conservation Translocations. Version 1.0. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN Species Survival Commission, viiii + 57 pp.  ISBN: 978-2-8317-1609-1

Translocation digest - April 2013

SA, Botswana in rhino translocation deal
South Africa.info
The translocation was facilitated in partnership with conservation organisation Rhino Force and funded by insurance administrator Motorite Administrators.

&Beyond translocate six white rhino to Okavango Delta
Bizcommunity.com
Translocations are fundamental to secure the survival of endangered species. This project is led by &Beyond's conservation team and aims to increase ...

Kihansi Toads Reintroduced in the Wilderness
AllAfrica.com
Kilombero — TANZANIA has gone down in history as the world's first country to successfullyreintroduce into the wild amphibians that had been in danger of extinction. This has been revealed during the release of the second batch of 1,500 Kihansi Spray ...

The Reintroduction of Wolves | Skeptoid
Out of the efforts of these latter a federal wolf reintroduction program was born, the future of which has been the subject of a long and bitter debate in the ...

Reintroduction of Wolves Remains Contentious - Arizona Public Media
A recovery effort has been underway for decades and reached a milestone in 1998 when wolves werereintroduced into their historic territories in Arizona and ...

Conserving the Aplomado falcon
The Northern Aplomado Falcon is a beautiful raptor with a former range including all of South America, Central America, Mexico, and the southwestern United States. It's also critically endangered. That's why Bill Heinrich, Species Restoration Manager for The Peregrine Fund, is working to restore this species to its former U.S. range.


Publications:

La Haye, M. J. J., Koelewijn, H. P., Siepel, H., Verwimp, N. and Windig, J. (2012). Genetic rescue and the increase of litter size in the recovery breeding program of the common hamster (Cricetus cricetus) in the Netherlands. Relatedness, inbreeding and heritability of litter size in a breeding program of an endangered rodent. Hereditas, 149: 207–216. doi: 10.1111/j.1601-5223.2012.02277.x

King, R. S., Trutwin, J. J., Hunter, T. S. and Varner, D. M. (2013), Effects of environmental stressors on nest success of introduced birds. The Journal of Wildlife Management. doi: 10.1002/jwmg.528

Bell, T. J., Powell, K. I. and Bowles, M. L. (2013), Viability model choice affects projection accuracy and reintroduction decisions. The Journal of Wildlife Management. doi: 10.1002/jwmg.525

Jachowski, D. S., Slotow, R. and Millspaugh, J. J. (2013), Delayed physiological acclimatization by African elephants following reintroduction. Animal Conservation. doi: 10.1111/acv.12031

HARRINGTON, L. A., MOEHRENSCHLAGER, A., GELLING, M., ATKINSON, R. P. D., HUGHES, J. and MACDONALD, D. W. (2013), Conflicting and Complementary Ethics of Animal Welfare Considerations in Reintroductions. Conservation Biology. doi: 10.1111/cobi.12021

HUNTER, E. A., GIBBS, J. P., CAYOT, L. J. and TAPIA, W. (2013), Equivalency of Galápagos Giant Tortoises Used as Ecological Replacement Species to Restore Ecosystem Functions. Conservation Biology. doi: 10.1111/cobi.12038

Learning from non-conservation translocations: "Conspecifics can be aliens too..."

I was very glad to receive the paper featured in this post from one of the co-authors, Jocelyn Champagnon, as this review has some important conclusions to draw in terms of restocking practices. The authors have not restricted themselves to looking at restocking for conservation purposes only, instead, they draw on a range of reasons that result in the mixing of conspecifics from wild and captive sources and their conclusions are all the more valuable as a result.  These release events include making a target population of a threatened species viable, enhancing future harvests of for example, game birds, unintentional escapes from fish farms and fur farms and releases motivated by an ethical standpoint on animal welfare.  These and other reasons for release are described in the paper in a useful and enlightening summary that really opened my eyes to the diversity of reasons that can result in conspecifics from captive and wild populations mixing.

The review summarises the effects of restocking (intentionally or not) on wild and translocated individuals using 233 studies to provide a thorough overview of the possible implications. The explanations are too detailed to cover here but include behavioural, genetic, demographic and pathogenic impacts, both positive and negative for both wild and captive-bred individuals. Of particular interest to me were revelations on dispersal behaviour; in mobile species captive-bred individuals tend to disperse further than their wild counterparts. This means that the intended positive effects of restocking e.g. improved social interactions, are not attained and furthermore, the captive-bred animals are more likely to perish during migration, select unsuitable habitat, and fail to breed.  Another interesting finding is that population trends may be positive due to the introduction of new individuals to the group but practitioners should be aware that this might mask underlying problems. Mixing many individuals in one site might result in better demographic and social dynamics but if the reason for decline is unfavourable habitat, eventually the captive-bred animals may also succumb in time.

As part of the conservation translocation community, I think we would benefit by wider adoption of the following recommendations adapted from the paper:

• Avoid selection in captivity.
• Choose genetic strains that are as close as possible to wild target populations
• Vaccination and diseas screening should be routine practice.
• There is an urgent need for monitoring the size, duration and success of restocking events and this would be enhanced if individuals were identifiable using e.g. tags or rings etc.
• Policy-makers and managers need to encourage studies that reduce research bias e.g. addressing the lack of rigorous studies on harvest enhancing interventions.
• Practitioners in conservation, game management, fisheries, epidemiology and other relevant fields would benefit by working across disciplines.

By using restocking events from a range of motivations and circumstances, Jocelyn and her co-authors have added weight to the idea that translocations for non-conservation purposes have much to teach us when using translocations to effect conservation benefit. Ultimately, mixing wild and captive-bred individuals will impact upon each other regardless of how well-intentioned the motivation, if it is intentional at all. Augmenting wild populations have many positive and negative impacts but it is critical to realise that most of the effects covered here are unintended and unforeseen. The process of removing individuals from the wild has the effect of altering traits, or at least, their offspring's traits, resulting in a markedly different animal. Many of these problems are familiar from invasive species biology but with the added problem that genetic and behavioural barriers that normally occur between wild animals and non-native invasives are not there. As the title of the paper neatly states, conspecifics can be aliens too and this comes with all the associated problems of invasive non-natives and more.

For the full paper (and I'd recommend that you read the full thing) please contact Jocelyn by email or download using the following citation:

Champagnon, J., Elmberg, J., Guillemain, M., Gauthier-Clerc, M., & Lebreton, J.-D. (2012). Conspecifics can be aliens too: A review of effects of restocking practices in vertebrates. Journal for Nature Conservation, 20(4), 231–241. doi:10.1016/j.jnc.2012.02.002

Translocation digest - January 2013

This post is the first of a new monthly digest which will feature brief descriptions of translocation projects and related news.  As those of you who regularly read my blog will know, most of my posts cover a journal article or news story on a particular species or aspect of translocation practice. However, this doesn't do justice to the number of ongoing projects there are and the monthly digest aims to represent this.  As ever, please let me know if you want any projects featuring in the digest or as a longer post - I'm hoping this addition will prove valuable to the translocation community so feedback always welcome.

Translocation projects:

Bighorn sheep not being reintroduced into Bridger Mountains yet KTVQ Billings News Instead of an immediate reintroduction, FWP plans to work with sheep owners in the Bridgers to help reduce the risk of contact between domestic and Bighorn sheep. The aim will be to create a better opportunity for success with a future reintroduction.

Kihansi Spray Toad Reintroduced into its Native Habitat Student Operated Press The Wildlife Conservation Society`s Bronx Zoo, the Toledo Zoo, Tanzanian government, World Bank and other partners have reintroduced 2,000 Kihansi spray toads into the Kihansi Gorge in Tanzania. Changing locations fail to mitigate man-beast conflict, says ... The Sunday Times Sri Lanka By Kumudini Hettiarachchi Translocation of elephants, undertaken to mitigate the human-elephant conflict and conserve elephants, does not reduce the conflict or save elephants but causes an increase in the conflict and deaths of elephants, is the surprising finding of a study conducted in Sri Lanka.

Publications:

Sarah E. Dalrymple & Axel Moehrenschlager (2013).
"Words matter." A response to Jorgensen's treatment of historic range and definitions of reintroduction.
RESTORATION ECOLOGY vol 20 (6) DOI:101111/j. 1526-100X.2012.00932.x

Turlure, C., Radchuk, V., Baguette, M., Meijrink, M., van den Burg, A., De Vries, M. W. and van Duinen, G.-J. (2012), 
Plant quality and local adaptation undermine relocation in a bog specialist butterfly. 
Ecology and Evolution. doi: 10.1002/ece3.427

Is host tolerance to pathogens and herbivores is more beneficial than resistance in reintroduced populations?

In just about every set of reintroduction guidelines I’ve ever read, one of the primary recommendations is always to eradicate the threats that caused the extirpation of populations of the target species. However, dealing with threats that have an extensive impact are often impossible to eradicate or limit to a specific location.  In the paper summarised below, Matthew Venesky and his co-authors (Venesky et al. 2012) examine several lines of evidence to look at the incidence of pathogens and herbivores and how reintroductions can be optimised to cope with a threat that can’t easily be controlled.

The paper relies on three concepts to make their argument that particular traits are key to successful translocation of species threatened by non-native pathogens or herbivores: virulence, tolerance and resistance. Virulence is defined "as the per capita effects of a pathogen or herbivore". Host tolerance is expressed as the ability to withstand an attack with little loss of fitness. Resistance refers to the reduction of pathogen or herbivore impact through deterring infection or herbivory, or attacking the pests directly. Tolerance is thought to have a neutral or positive consequence for pest abundance whereas resistance has a negative impact on pathogen or herbivore abundance.

The main thesis is that the generation time of pathogens and herbivores (especially invertebrates) is shorter than that of their hosts and can therefore be subject to selection pressures that are exerted as a result of the negative influence of host resistance. This creates pest populations that evolve countermeasures against resistance mechanisms; the lag in the host response means that reintroduced populations suffer high mortality before developing adequate resistance. Hosts which exhibit tolerance rather than resistance do not place strong selection pressures causing increased virulence, and in some cases may even select for decreased impacts. As a result, captive breeding that selects for tolerant (rather than resistant) individuals for translocation, may maximise the chance that a reintroduction attempt will survive long enough to produce progeny.

The two case studies use examples of non-native organisms to explore how captive breeding might select for tolerance rather than resistance to cope with pathogens and herbivory. The first is the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) that causes chytridiomycosis and has decimated amphibian populations across the world. Selection for resistance involves several suggested approaches including identifying indicators of infection but minimal loss in fitness.  The second example is the cactus moth (Cactoblastis cactorum) which was succesfully introduced to Australia to reduce the prevalence of non-native prickly pear (Opuntia spp.). Unfortunately, the cactus moth has exhibited similar voracity against two narrow endemic species of cactus in Florida. Selection for tolerant genotypes might involve identifying individuals that drop pads from the main plant when stressed by moth herbivory.

The final section of the paper adds some important caveats to the discussion that shifts in host tolerance may have unexpected consequences such as a trade-off for competitive abilities of the host and the existence of low levels of pathogens and herbivores that could act as a reservoir for invading non-tolerant communities. As a result, Venesky et al. (2012) recommend adaptive managment strategies and using an experimental approach to compare the survival of resistant and tolerant genotypes post translocation.

Venesky, M. D., Mendelson III, J. R., Sears, B. F., Stiling, P., & Rohr, J. R. (2012). Selecting for Tolerance against Pathogens and Herbivores to Enhance Success of Reintroduction and Translocation. Conservation biology, 26(4), 586–592. doi:10.1111/j.1523-1739.2012.01854.x