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: 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

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

More than life or death, part II: plant reintroduction monitoring

After writing about the problems associated with relying on basic demographic parameters for evaluating animal reintroduction projects, in this post I'll be looking more closely at how plant translocations can be more accurately monitored and evaluated by using a more nuanced set of indicators than just survival alone.  Although this post was prompted by a recent commentary by Ed Guerrant on the conclusions of three recent reviews of plant reintroductions (one being mine, another by Ed and a third by Sandrine Godefroid and co-authors, all citations below), I wanted to look again at an older publication by Bruce Pavlik from 1996. Ed's commentary quite rightly encourages people undertaking plant conservation translocations to use several measures as indicators of success, namely abundance, extent, persistence and resilience proposed by Pavlik in the Center for Plant Conservation volume Restoring Diversity. As with many messages from this book, I am disheartened that there has not been wider uptake of the recommendations especially considering that it is now 18 years since publication.

Pavlik's description of the four indicators of success are useful because he adds valuable extra detail to the main indicators conveying the complexity of measuring the success of a plant translocation.  He described abundance as incorporating establishment, vegetative growth, fecundity and population size.  I am sure that I am not alone in relying the the last measure rather too heavily in the past. The measure of extent constitutes number and distribution of populations but also importantly, includes dispersal.  Resilience results from genetic diversity, resistance to perturbation and dormancy - an avoidance technique particularly useful for plants in strongly fluctuating environments. And finally, persistence is characterized as self-sustainability where the effective (reproducing) population is a realtively large proportion of the overall population size, the ability to utilise more than one microhabitat, and the extent of community 'membership' i.e., are pollinating insects present, has the species become assimilated into a diverse community, and are seed dispersal vectors operating properly?

As Pavlik states, "success cannot come without risk", so indicators of success must be nuanced enough that we can work out where the risk is felt most keenly.  As someone who has based large reviews of reintroductions on coarse measures of presence or absence, I have found that survival only tells a very small part of the story and without a selection of indicators across the four headings described by Pavlik, causes for failure cannot be discerned and adaptive management cannot be undertaken.

• Dalrymple, S.A., Stewart, G.B., and Pullin, A.S. 2011. Are reintroductions an effective way of mitigating against plant extinctions? Collaboration for Environmental Evidence, CEE Review 07-008 (SR 32). (http://www.environmentalevidence.org/Documents/Completed_Reviews/SR32.pdf).

Godefroid S, Piazza C, Rossi G, Buord S, Stevens AD, Aguraiuja R, Cowell C, Weekley CW, Vogg G, Iriondo JM, Johnson I, Dixon B, Gordon D, Magnanon S, Valentin B, Bjureke K, Koopman R, Vicens M, Virevaire M, Vanderborght T. 2011. How successful are plant species reintroductions? Biol. Conserv. 144(2): 672-682.

• Guerrant, E.O., Jr. 2012. Characterizing two decades of rare plant reintroductions. In Plant reintroduction in a changing climate: promises and perils. Edited by J. Maschinski and K.E. Haskins. Island Press, Washington, D.C. pp. 9–29.

Guerrant, E. O. (2013). The value and propriety of reintroduction as a conservation tool for rare plants. Botany, 91 (5): v–x.

• Pavlik, B.M. 1996. Defining and measuring success. In Restoring diversity: Strategies for the reintroduction of endangered species. Edited by D.A. Falk, C.I. Millar, and M. Olwell. Island Press, Washington, D.C. pp. 127–156.

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

Translocations and genetics - a simple summary of a complex subject

This may be a bit of a cop out but I wanted to blog about some of the issues surrounding genetics and translocations and found this post on the excellent Conservation Bytes blog run by Corey Bradshaw.  The author, Dr Salvador Herrando-Perez, has done a much better job than I could so I encourage you to follow the link below:

http://conservationbytes.com/2013/01/14/translocations-genetic-rescue-paradox/