Translocation digest: October 2013

Projects:

Reintroduced Gorillas Going StrongDigitalJournal.com

The Aspinall Foundation's reintroduction of western lowland gorillas to areas of Africa where they have been hunted to extinction appears to be working, ...

10 gazelles reintroduced from Azerbaijan to GeorgiaNews.Az

Reintroduction of gazelles from Azerbaijan to Georgia as part of the project of IDEA campaign “Reintroduction of gazelles on their historical habitat in the ...

See all stories on this topic » Wild horse reintroduction project updateUB Post Mongolia has been implementing the “Project on Re-Acclimatizing the Wild Horse” in Mongolia with the government of the Czech Republic and Prague Zoo ... See all stories on this topic » Researchers see comeback for Europe's rare animalsLas Vegas Sun ... to the study, which found that protecting habitats, restricting hunting, reducing pollution and the careful reintroduction were key to the species' survival. See all stories on this topic » Group questions need for wild bisonGreat Falls Tribune A few spoke in favor of bison reintroduction. “Why do we need wild bison?” said Jo Schipman, who argued there is no way to contain the animals. “It's never ... See all stories on this topic » Salmon reintroduced to Czech rivers after 50-year absence due to ...NBCNews.com (blog) Members of Czech Fishing Union and Bohemian Switzerland National Park release salmon every year to Kamenice River as part of thereintroduction program ... See all stories on this topic » Ferret release akin to herding catsSeattle Post Intelligencer The Arizona Game and Fish Department, with the cooperation of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, released 34 black-footed ferrets at a reintroduction site in ... See all stories on this topic » Banff prepares for return of bisonVancouver Sun The reintroduction - which draws on Parks Canada's long record of managing bison in national parks such as Elk Island, Wood Buffalo and Grasslands - won't ... See all stories on this topic »

Publications:

Bradley, D. W., Molles, L. E. and Waas, J. R. (2014), Post-translocation assortative pairing and social implications for the conservation of an endangered songbird. Animal Conservation, 17: 197–203. doi: 10.1111/acv.12083

Guisan A. et al (2013). Predicting species distributions for conservation decisions. Ecology Letters 16: 1424–1435. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ele.12189/abstract

Olson, Z. H., Whittaker, D. G. and Rhodes, O. E. (2013), Translocation history and genetic diversity in reintroduced bighorn sheep. The Journal of Wildlife Management, 77: 1553–1563. doi: 10.1002/jwmg.624

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 implications for the song repertoire of the kōkako

The North Island Kōkako, Callaeas cinerea, use song in year-round territory defence and strengthening monogamous pair bonds.  Sandra Valderrama and co-workers described song repertoire in six natural populations, and two translocated populations on New Zealand's North Island to describe how population size affected this important behaviour.

They found that pairs in smaller populations have lower song diversity and higher shared song phrases than larger populations.  In many cases translocated populations are very small relative to the size of natural populations and this study was no exception – the two translocated populations consisted of only 18 and 20 individuals. Higher numbers of founding members may be helpful in accelerating population growth through more efficient pair formation and territory establishment and defence.

Their findings also have implications for selecting individuals from natural populations for translocation.  Translocations using individuals from multiple donor populations may result in individuals from smaller populations being at a disadvantage due to a smaller song repertoire and therefore, reduced ability to find mates. This may have knock-on effects for the genetic mixing of individuals from different donor populations – if the birds from smaller populations cannot find a mate due to a lack of the right ‘vocabulary’, their genes will not be represented in the newly created population.

Valderrama, S. V., Molles, L. E., & Waas, J. R. (2012). Effects of Population Size on Singing Behavior of a Rare Duetting Songbird. Conservation Biology, no–no. doi:10.1111/j.1523-1739.2012.01917.x