Translocation digest: March 2014

News:

Reintroduction experiments shed light on habitat requirements of marsh sandwort Arenaria paludicola in California, US.
http://www.sciencecodex.com/reintroduction_experiments_give_new_hope_for_a_plant_on_the_brink_of_extinction-129882

When Rewilding isn't mad: rewilding the Chilean espinal with reintroduced guanaco.
http://theconversation.com/when-rewilding-isnt-mad-guanacos-can-transform-the-espinal-of-chile-24248

Panther enthusiasts convene to discuss reintroduction to north Florida.
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2014/florida-panther-03-21-2014.html

Pacific fishers planned for release in Mount Rainier National Park, US, this autumn.
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2014/03/23/3546334/mount-rainier-park-biologist-hopes.html

Paddlefish reintroduction at Big Cypress Bayou, US.
http://collinsacademy.com/paddlefish-reintroduction/

Wolf top dog in BBC Countryfile reintroduction poll, UK.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-26616451

Retuerta horses to be released in western Iberia, Spain, as part of rewilding project.

http://www.dw.de/rare-horses-reintroduced-to-the-wild-in-spain/a-17175148

One of only two Irish-bred white tailed eagles found shot in Tipperary.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/one-of-only-two-irish-bred-white-tailed-eagles-shot-and-killed-1.1713647

Cougars recolonizing historic range post-release are encountering human-related threats.

http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/6226/20140303/cougars-recolonizing-historic-range-face-new-human-threats.htm

Steller's eider may be reintroduced to Alaska

http://www.thearcticsounder.com/article/1410stellers_eider_may_be_reintroduced

Publications:

BONEBRAKE, T. C., SYPHARD, A. D., FRANKLIN, J., ANDERSON, K. E., AKÇAKAYA, H. R., MIZEREK, T., WINCHELL, C. and REGAN, H. M. (2014), Fire Management, Managed Relocation, and Land Conservation Options for Long-Lived Obligate Seeding Plants under Global Changes in Climate, Urbanization, and Fire Regime. Conservation Biology. doi: 10.1111/cobi.12253

Clayton, J. A., Pavey, C. R., Vernes, K. and Tighe, M. (2014), Review and analysis of Australian macropod translocations 1969–2006. Mammal Review, 44: 109–123. doi: 10.1111/mam.12020

Davidson, A. D., Friggens, M. T., Shoemaker, K. T., Hayes, C. L., Erz, J. and Duran, R. (2014), Population dynamics of reintroduced Gunnison's Prairie dogs in the southern portion of their range. The Journal of Wildlife Management, 78: 429–439. doi: 10.1002/jwmg.681

Evans, M. L., Wilke, N. F., O'Reilly, P. T. and Fleming, I. A. (2014), Transgenerational effects of parental rearing environment influence the survivorship of captive-born offspring in the wild. Conservation Letters. doi: 10.1111/conl.12092

Hunter, E. A. and Gibbs, J. P. (2014), Densities of Ecological Replacement Herbivores Required to Restore Plant Communities: A Case Study of Giant Tortoises on Pinta Island, Galápagos. Restoration Ecology, 22: 248–256. doi: 10.1111/rec.12055

Lerp, H., Plath, M., Wronski, T., Bärmann, E. V., Malczyk, A., Resch, R.-R., Streit, B. and Pfenninger, M. (2014), Utility of island populations in re-introduction programmes – relationships between Arabian gazelles (Gazella arabica) from the Farasan Archipelago and endangered mainland populations. Molecular Ecology, 23: 1910–1922. doi: 10.1111/mec.12694

MILLER, K. A., BELL, T. P. and GERMANO, J. M. (2014), Understanding Publication Bias in Reintroduction Biology by Assessing Translocations of New Zealand's Herpetofauna. Conservation Biology. doi: 10.1111/cobi.12254

Translocation digest: August 2013

Projects:

Sea eagles breed on east coast of Scotland for first time in almost ...Telegraph.co.uk

Most have moved long distances from the release point, with some ending up in the west Highlands where birds have been reintroduced at different sites over a ...

See all stories on this topic »

PLANTS CONSIDERED FOR ASSISTED MIGRATION TO ...GardenNews.biz (press release)

Adam Smith, an ecologist at the Missouri Botanical Garden has begun to determine the ability of “chaperoned” assisted migration to aid plants in responding to ...

See all stories on this topic »

Ibis reintroduction program sees fledging successThe Japan Times

NIIGATA – Kei Osada, 41, is the man behind the recent success of a government effort toreintroduce the crested ibis as part of a captive breeding program for ...

See all stories on this topic »

Keeping the Seychelles Island Giant Tortoises Off the Endangered ...The Edwardsville Intelligencer

Initial results of Giant Tortoise reintroduction seem positive, but close monitoring and care will need to be a priority as this delicate balance takes place. Full text ...

See all stories on this topic »

New born beavers pictured at trial site aimed at bringing the animal ...Scottish Daily Record

The five youngsters or "kits" have been spotted at the Scottish beaver trial site at Knapdale in Argyll, the only licensed reintroduction scheme for beavers - and ...

See all stories on this topic »

Plan seeks 'chaperones' for threatened speciesNature.com

Critics claim that such 'assisted migration' could transform struggling species into destructive invaders, or inadvertently transmit disease, or that hybridization ...

See all stories on this topic »

A timeline of the desert tortoise's slow and steady declineHigh Country News

Fish and Wildlife and the San Diego Zoo experimentally translocated juvenile tortoises from the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center to the former Nevada Test ...

See all stories on this topic »

Publications:

Bristol, R. M., Tucker, R., Dawson, D. A., Horsburgh, G., Prys-Jones, R. P., Frantz, A. C., Krupa, A., Shah, N. J., Burke, T. and Groombridge, J. J. (2013), Comparison of historical bottleneck effects and genetic consequences of re-introduction in a critically endangered island passerine. Molecular Ecology, 22: 4644–4662. doi: 10.1111/mec.12429

CULLINGHAM, C. I. and MOEHRENSCHLAGER, A. (2013), Temporal Analysis of Genetic Structure to Assess Population Dynamics of Reintroduced Swift Foxes. Conservation Biology, 27: 1389–1398. doi: 10.1111/cobi.12122

Fisk, J. M., Kwak, T. J. and Heise, R. J. (2014), Modelling riverine habitat for robust redhorse: assessment for reintroduction of an imperilled species. Fisheries Management and Ecology, 21: 57–67. doi: 10.1111/fme.12050

Gomez, E. D., Cabaitan, P. C., Yap, H. T. and Dizon, R. M. (2014), Can Coral Cover be Restored in the Absence of Natural Recruitment and Reef Recovery?. Restoration Ecology, 22: 142–150. doi: 10.1111/rec.12041

Jones, T. A. (2013), When local isn't best. Evolutionary Applications, 6: 1109–1118. doi: 10.1111/eva.12090

Translocation digest: September 2013

Projects:
Endangered Mussel Is Reintroduced To TennesseeThe Chattanoogan

An endangered mussel came home to a Tennessee river last week, a monumentalreintroduction effort seven years in the making. On Wednesday, federal and ...

See all stories on this topic »

Assisted migration could help plants find a new homeAnchorage Daily News Plants, evolved to move with the natural rhythms of the world, cannot keep up with the rapid pace of climate change we are facing today. Their ideal habitats are ... See all stories on this topic »
Old Whooping Cranes Teach Youngsters Migration Route, And The ...Headlines & Global News After their first human-assisted migration the young birds are on their own, although some choose to travel with other cranes. The team tracks their migration over ... See all stories on this topic » Draft bison reintroduction plan releasedRocky Mountain Outlook Parks Canada has released its draft plan to restore plains bison to the Rocky Mountains of Banff and the federal agency is now seeking comments from the ... See all stories on this topic » Scottish ospreys help Spain reintroductionSurfbirds News (blog) Twelve young Scottish ospreys have been released on the north Spanish coast near Bilbao, as the first stage of a five-year project to restore breeding ospreys to ... See all stories on this topic »

Publications:

Aourir, M., Znari, M., Radi, M. and Melin, J.-M. (2013), Wild-laid versus captive-laid eggs in the black-bellied sandgrouse: Is there any effect on chick productivity?. Zoo Biol., 32: 592–599. doi: 10.1002/zoo.21095

Brown, D. S., Burger, R., Cole, N., Vencatasamy, D., Clare, E. L., Montazam, A. and Symondson, W. O. C. (2013), Dietary competition between the alien Asian Musk Shrew (Suncus murinus) and a re-introduced population of Telfair's Skink (Leiolopisma telfairii). Molecular Ecology. doi: 10.1111/mec.12445

Chauvenet, A. L. M., Ewen, J. G., Armstrong, D., Pettorelli, N. (2013), EDITOR'S CHOICE: Saving the hihi under climate change: a case for assisted colonization. Journal of Applied Ecology, 50: 1330–1340. doi: 10.1111/1365-2664.12150

Keller, D. L. and Hartup, B. K. (2013), Reintroduction medicine: Whooping cranes in Wisconsin. Zoo Biol., 32: 600–607. doi: 10.1002/zoo.21097

Lorimer, J. and Driessen, C. (2014), Wild experiments at the Oostvaardersplassen: rethinking environmentalism in the Anthropocene. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 39: 169–181. doi: 10.1111/tran.12030

Translocation digest - June 2013

Translocation projects:

Endangered beetle reintroduced in SW Mo.
Seattle Post Intelligencer
EL DORADO SPRINGS, Mo. (AP) — The Saint Louis Zoo and other conservation groups have been working to restore the population of an endangered beetle in southwest Missouri, and the effort appears successful so far.

In the News: Scarlet macaw reintroduced to parts of Mexico
ARKive (blog)
The first macaw reintroduction took place in April, with a second small flock scheduled for release at the end of June. After this, small groups of 10 to 12 birds at a time will be released until a quota of 60 to 70 for this year is met.

Mountain lion population could pose a threat to reintroduction of bighorns in ...
The Republic
TUCSON, Arizona — An already "robust" population of mountain lions in the Catalina Mountains appears to be increasing — and that could pose a threat to a planned reintroduction of bighorn sheep in the range this fall.

New swan chicks at Lincoln Park Zoo soon to go wild
Chicago Tribune
After about four months growing up with their protective parents, the six endangered chicks will be released into the wild as part of a trumpeter-swan reintroduction and recovery program the zoo has been active in for more than a decade, officials said ...

First translocated rhino gives birth in Manas National Park
Indian Express
Mainao, the first rhino that was translocated to the Manas National Park in western ... and conservation staff working towards bringing Manas back to shape.

4 of 8 California condors died from lead poisoning
NorthJersey.com
Officials with the Peregrine Fund's condor reintroduction project say 72 condors currently fly in a range that stretches from Arizona's Grand Canyon to southern Utah's Zion National Park. There were just 22 condors when a program was started in 1996 to ...

Wild lynx to be brought back to British countryside
Telegraph.co.uk
Senior biologists and cat specialists are this week due to apply for a license to reintroduce the cats, which can grow up to four feet in length, into an area of forest on the west coast of Scotland. Under the plans, which have been backed by officials ...

Can't send lions to gun country: International Union for Conservation of ... Economic Times Besides, the Supreme Court verdict on translocation states, "Re-introduction of Asiatic lion, needless to say, should be in accordance with the guidelines issued by IUCN and with the active participation of experts in the field of re-introduction of ...

Publications:

Benito-Garzón, M., Ha-Duong, M., Frascaria-Lacoste, N. and Fernández-Manjarrés, J. (2013), Habitat Restoration and Climate Change: Dealing with Climate Variability, Incomplete Data, and Management Decisions with Tree Translocations. Restoration Ecology. doi: 10.1111/rec.12032

Hedrick, P. W. (2013), Conservation genetics and the persistence and translocation of small populations: bighorn sheep populations as examples. Animal Conservation. doi: 10.1111/acv.12064

Lawes, T. J., Anthony, R. G., Robinson, W. D., Forbes, J. T. and Lorton, G. A. (2013), Movements and settlement site selection of pygmy rabbits after experimental translocation. The Journal of Wildlife Management. doi: 10.1002/jwmg.572

McCleery, R., Oli, M. K., Hostetler, J. A., Karmacharya, B., Greene, D., Winchester, C., Gore, J., Sneckenberger, S., Castleberry, S. B. and Mengak, M. T. (2013), Are declines of an endangered mammal predation-driven, and can a captive-breeding and release program aid their recovery?. Journal of Zoology. doi: 10.1111/jzo.12046

Christensen, P. and McDonald, T. (2013), Reintroductions and controlling feral predators: Interview with Per Christensen. Ecological Management & Restoration, 14: 93–100. doi: 10.1111/emr.12044

Harris, S., Arnall, S., Byrne, M., Coates, D., Hayward, M., Martin, T., Mitchell, N. and Garnett, S. (2013), Whose backyard? Some precautions in choosing recipient sites for assisted colonisation of Australian plants and animals. Ecological Management & Restoration, 14: 106–111. doi: 10.1111/emr.12041

WOODFORD, J. E., MACFARLAND, D. M. and WORLAND, M. (2013), Movement, survival, and home range size of translocated american martens (Martes americana) in wisconsin. Wildlife Society Bulletin. doi: 10.1002/wsb.291

SMYSER, T. J., JOHNSON, S. A., KRISTEN PAGE, L., HUDSON, C. M. and RHODES, O. E. (2013), Use of Experimental Translocations of Allegheny Woodrat to Decipher Causal Agents of Decline. Conservation Biology. doi: 10.1111/cobi.12064

Runge, M. C. (2013), Active adaptive management for reintroduction of an animal population. The Journal of Wildlife Management. doi: 10.1002/jwmg.571

COLLAZO, J. A., FACKLER, P. L., PACIFICI, K., WHITE, T. H., LLERANDI-ROMAN, I. and DINSMORE, S. J. (2013), Optimal allocation of captive-reared Puerto Rican parrots: Decisions when divergent dynamics characterize managed populations. The Journal of Wildlife Management. doi: 10.1002/jwmg.569

GRIFFITHS, C. J., ZUËL, N., JONES, C. G., AHAMUD, Z. and HARRIS, S. (2013), Assessing the Potential to Restore Historic Grazing Ecosystems with Tortoise Ecological Replacements. Conservation Biology. doi: 10.1111/cobi.12087

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

Translocation digest - March 2013

Translocation projects:

Request to participate in a reintroduction survey:
My MSc. student, Erzsébet Óhegyi is writing her thesis on the funding of reintroduction programmes.
She has developed an online questionnaire - she would be very grateful if you could fill it up with data on your programme:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1NGD-LDx7JglusBX94xsem36u8mh_XE-W_FwMUcAl3yM/viewform?edit_requested=true
The results will hopefully be published in an international publication.
Thank you in advance for your help!
Best regards:
Bálint Bajomi

NACD Comments on FWS Black-Footed Ferret Reintroduction Proposal
KTIC
The National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD) submitted comments in response to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) draft guidance for reintroduction of the Black-Footed Ferret under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The Draft Black-Footed ...


Publications:

• Pham, L., West, D. and Closs, G. P. (2013), Reintroduction of a native galaxiid (Galaxias fasciatus) following piscicide treatment in two streams: response and recovery of the fish population. Ecology of Freshwater Fish. doi: 10.1111/eff.12031
• Laura Scillitani, Gaëlle Darmon, Andrea Monaco, Giampaolo Cocca, Enrico Sturaro, Luca Rossi and Maurizio Ramanzin (2013).  Habitat selection in translocated gregarious ungulate species: An interplay between sociality and ecological requirements.  THE JOURNAL OF WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT 77, 2, DOI : 10.1002/jwmg.517
• Shikang Shen, Yuehua Wang, Aili Zhang, Fuqin Wu, L. J. and L. J. (2013). Conservation and reintroduction of a critically endangered plant Euryodendron excelsum. Oryx, 47(1), 17.
• Frascaria-Lacoste, N. and Fernández-Manjarrés, J. (2012), Assisted Colonization of Foundation Species: Lack of Consideration of the Extended Phenotype Concept—Response to . Restoration Ecology, 20: 296–298. doi: 10.1111/j.1526-100X.2012.00875.x

Meetings:

11th International Mammalogical Congress 2013, 11 - 16 August 2013, Queen's University Belfast, UK
Symposium: Reintroductions: objectives, methods and obstacles (Grogan, USGS; Schoenecker, USGS)
http://www.qub.ac.uk/sites/IMC11/

http://www.qub.ac.uk/sites/IMC11/Symposia/  see symposium 34

AWMS (Australasian Society for Wildlife Management) 2013, Massey University in Palmerston North, New Zealand.
Conference theme: "Advances in Reintroduction of Australasian Fauna 1993-2013"

The main motivation for this theme is that it is now 20 years since the successful 1993 conference on “Reintroduction biology of Australian and New Zealand fauna”, which in turn led to the book of the same name edited by Melody Serena. It is therefore timely to review the many innovations and research advances that have been made over the last 20 years, and discuss future challenges and directions.

Although our focus is on Australasia, some of you from outside the region may be keen to find out more about what is happening here and/or provide some international perspective.  The International Marine Mammal Conference is being held in Dunedin from 9-13 December, so this could be an additional incentive for some of you to visit New Zealand.

Further information is available at the conference website ( www.onqconferences.com.au/events/awms2013), and you can go on the mailing list for announcements by contacting awms@onqconferences.com.au.

Planning translocations under a changing climate

Just before Christmas I attended the British Ecological Society Annual Meeting at the University of Birmingham and saw a talk by Alienor Chauvenet of ZSL. Her talk, entitled 'Planning translocations under a changing climate' used the example of the hihi, Notiomystis cincta, to explore some ideas she originally proposed in her paper in Animal Conservation last year (reference below).

Chauvenet noted, as I have in my systematic review of plant reintroductions, that climate change is very rarely cited as a motivation for undertaking translocations. However, climate change is not an issue that should be only be tackled when we discuss the pros and cons of assisted colonisation and other types of conservation introduction. Climate change has the potential to irreversibly alter the distribution of suitable habitat and therefore, needs to be accounted for in translocation projects whether it is a reintroduction or an introduction to new sites.

Both her paper and the BES talk propose a combination of methods to ensure that site selection in translocation projects maximises the success of reintroductions and assisted colonization under climate change. The strength of using a variety of methods to attempt to select translocation sites is made clear in

Definitions of conservation translocation

This post is just to highlight the fact that I've updated the 'definitions' page on this blog (see top tabs to find the different pages).  Definitions are key to a discipline such as this one, where confusion in terminology generates a host of uncertainties about the motivations, appropriate methods and policy implications for species conservation.  For this reason, the IUCN Task Force charged with revising and expanding the Guidelines for Reintroductions and Other Conservation Translocations spent a great deal of time scrutinising the definitions and testing their applicability under a range of scenarios and case-studies.

The new definitions for conservation translocations include a shift from 'historic range' to 'indigenous range' and the following interventions:

• Population Restoration - including reinforcement and reintroduction
• Conservation Introduction - including assisted colonisation and ecological replacement

The full Guidelines are available in an interim version just now (please email me if you would like this version) but will be freely available on the IUCN Re-introductions Specialist Group website in the final format soon.  There are also plans underway for translation of the Guidelines into several languages and hard-copies to be made available.

Sensationalist press coverage - is this always the way the general public will see our work?

This is just a quick post today, and features an article in Engineering & Technology magazine which in turn has quoted me.  I was pretty relieved to see that I'd been quoted appropriately and I come across as a voice of caution.  However, the real reason I'm blogging about it now, is because it raises questions about the 'face' we present to the non-specialist audiences when translocations are covered in the media.

E & T magazine has a print circulation of 180,000, mostly professional engineers, and is published online.  If we assume this is the first time many of these readers have heard about assisted migration, it presents quite a controversial picture.  Importantly, careful reading of this article reveals that it is well-balanced in its portrayal of when out-of-range translocations should be used, but how many people read this sort of article carefully?  Instead, will the take home message to many engineers be that biologists can sort it out - we're not there yet but it won't be long before we can move threatened species with certainty.  Is that the message they will read because that's the message they want to see?

Of course, I don't want to polarise engineers and biologists as 'them and us', we're going to have to work closely to make sure ecosystem functioning is protected whilst we continue to develop the infrastructure to house, educate and employ the 7 billion people on the planet.  But how do we communicate a more nuanced message that can actually achieve results?

Pool, R. (2012). Assisted migration and the ethics of playing  'eco god'. Engineering & Technology Magazine, 7(11). Available at: http://eandt.theiet.org/magazine/2012/11/move-it-or-lose-it.cfm

Combining data-led methods with expert opinion - how Bayesian approaches can bridge the gap between academia and practice.

With hindsight, I have mistakenly avoided Bayesian approaches to ecological modelling  because they incorporate prior beliefs. The quantitative scientist in me thought that this sounded a little too vague to be of use in conservation and would surely fall foul of bias towards preconceived ideas. However, after reading the paper featured below and the detailed supplementary materials, I am now a convert to Bayesian techniques and hope to incorporate them into my work in the future.


Laws & Kesler (2012) have developed a model for selecting translocation sites for the Guam Micronesian kingfisher (GMK), Todiramphus cinnamominus cinnamominus and to me, it seems like an excellent way of combining quantitative methods with common sense whilst incorporating the complexity of issues involved in selecting suitable sites for translocation. The best way I can explain their approach is to describe their inference diagram: imagine a tree where the main thing we're interested in, island suitability, is the trunk. The trunk splits into four branches representing ecological requirements, impacts on native species, anthropogenic threats and operational support. The tree continues to branch until the generic factors associated with any translocation (e.g. presence of disease, habitat protection laws, food availabilty) give way to GMK-specific factors (e.g. West Nile virus, protected areas, insect prey). At that point, my tree analogy breaks down because some of the 'twigs' feed into several branches but hopefully, you appreciate that this is a relatively straightforward way of representing the complexity in the GMK's translocation needs.


The next job is to assign conditional probablities to each of the factors that contribute to island suitability. For habitat suitability, the two components of available area of suitable vegetation and the extent of habitat fragmentation were modelled using data from 156 Micronesian islands and the occurence of kingfishers of the same genus as GMK. This was used as training data for the GMK model to select candidate translocation sites from 239 island. The rest of the modelling process relied on qualitative decisions to set categorical outcomes, for example, if predatory non-native species were present, the island would be deemed unsuitable. These were then translated into quanitative combinations for the purposes of the judging each island's suitability (see appendix A of the paper for more details).


Only five islands were considered suitable for GMK translocation and even then, they were thought to require varying levels of management. Site visits to the five islands found two of these to be unsuitable due to degraded habitats and lack of political support. The authors caution that the models are only as good as the input data they are built on.


I can see from Laws & Kesler's paper that Bayesian methods have real potential for bridging the gap between expert knowledge and data-driven correlative methods. However, we still need people with the statistical know-how to reach across the gap. Any volunteers?

Laws, R. J., & Kesler, D. C. (2012). A Bayesian network approach for selecting translocation sites for endangered island birds. Biological Conservation, 155, 178–185. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2012.05.016