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: February 2014

News:

Financial problems associated with relocation of local human communities in Madhya Pradesh, India, threatens proposed Cheetah translocation.
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/india-cheetah-reintroduction-nauradehi-wildlife-sanctuary-madhya-pradesh/1/340619.html

Mammal Society urges beaver reintroduction as part of flood management in the UK uplands.
http://www.smallholder.co.uk/news/10983329.Bring_back_beavers_to_stop_flooding__urges_Mammal_Society/?ref=nt

Northumberland National Park, UK, to consider reintroduction of beaver and pine marten.
http://www.berwick-advertiser.co.uk/news/local-news/all-news/beavers-could-be-reintroduced-to-national-park-1-3293593

Third phase of elk reintroduction to go ahead in Virginia, US.
http://www.leesburgtoday.com/more_a/middleburg_life/believe-it-or-not-elk-in-virginia/article_4b47c656-903a-11e3-af6b-001a4bcf887a.html

IUCN Reintroduction Case Studies published
http://wildlifenews.co.uk/2014/global-re-intorductions-case-studies-published/

Arizona (US) Fish and Wildlife officials to change management of desert bighorn introduction after losing 13 of 31 translocated animals.
http://kjzz.org/content/20802/arizona-game-and-fish-make-adjustments-bighorn-sheep-reintroduction

Yurok Tribe hopes California condors can be reintroduced in Klamath River Basin

http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20140221/LIFE/402210306

US Columbia River Tribes and Canadian First Nation work with governmental agencies to plan fish pass construction and reintroduction of migratory fish.

http://www.celp.org/2014/02/21/fish-passage-and-reintroduction-into-the-us-canadian-upper-columbia-river/

Publications:

Cromsigt, J. P. G. M., te Beest, M. (2014), Restoration of a megaherbivore: landscape-level impacts of white rhinoceros in Kruger National Park, South Africa. Journal of Ecology, 102: 566–575. doi: 10.1111/1365-2745.12218

GRANGE, Z. L., VAN ANDEL, M., FRENCH, N. P. and GARTRELL, B. D. (2014), Network Analysis of Translocated Takahe Populations to Identify Disease Surveillance Targets. Conservation Biology, 28: 518–528. doi: 10.1111/cobi.12178

OLDS, A. D., CONNOLLY, R. M., PITT, K. A., MAXWELL, P. S., ASWANI, S. and ALBERT, S. (2014), Incorporating Surrogate Species and Seascape Connectivity to Improve Marine Conservation Outcomes. Conservation Biology. doi: 10.1111/cobi.12242

Mckelvey, K. S., Aubry, K. B., Anderson, N. J., Clevenger, A. P., Copeland, J. P., Heinemeyer, K. S., Inman, R. M., Squires, J. R., Waller, J. S., Pilgrim, K. L. and Schwartz, M. K. (2014), Recovery of wolverines in the Western United States: Recent extirpation and recolonization or range retraction and expansion?. The Journal of Wildlife Management, 78: 325–334. doi: 10.1002/jwmg.649

Seddon, P.J., Moehrenschlager A. & Ewen J. (2014). Reintroducing resurrected species: selecting DeExtinction candidates TREE 29 (3): 140–147.

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: November 2013

Projects:

New area selected for reintroduction of Puerto Rican parrotsGlobalPost

San Juan, Nov 21 (EFE).- The Maricao State Forest in western Puerto Rico has been selected as the site for a third colony in the wild of Puerto Rican parrots on ...

See all stories on this topic » Endangered ferrets reintroduced on ranchLa Junta Tribune Democrat The ferrets, which are one of North America's most endangered mammals, were reintroducedon the Walker Ranch in Pueblo County. The event was hosted by ... See all stories on this topic » Protecting Gir's lions: Kuno's gun culture worries expertsTimes of India The report says that 40% of the revenue generated from the lionreintroduction project should percolate to local marginalized communities if anti-social activities ... See all stories on this topic » In a first, sambars to be shifted and reintroducedTimes of India NAGPUR: For the first time in the country, a non-endangered animal, the sambar, is being shifted and reintroduced to ensure that they procreate at a fast rate ... See all stories on this topic » Bighorns will be reintroduced to Catalinasazcentral The project will reintroduce bighorns to an area considered ideal terrain for the ... Some Tucson-area residents are worried that reintroduction of bighorns to ... See all stories on this topic

Publications:

Du, H., Wang, C.Y., Wei, Q.W., Zhang, H., Wu, J.M. and Li, L. (2013), Distribution and movement of juvenile and sub-adult Chinese sturgeon (Acipenser sinensis Gray, 1835) in the Three Gorges Reservoir and the adjacent upstream free-flowing Yangtze River section: a re-introduction trial. Journal of Applied Ichthyology, 29: 1383–1388. doi: 10.1111/jai.12343

1. Shephard
2.  J.M., 
3. Ogden R., 
4. Tryjanowski
5.  P, 
6. Olsson
7.  O and
8. Galbusera P (2013). 
Is population structure in the European white stork determined by flyway permeability rather than translocation history? Ecology and Evolution 3(15): 4881–4895

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

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: July 2013

Projects:

Free State's first wild cheetah in 100 years
News24
"This reintroduction marks an extremely important moment in our battle to save the Cheetah from extinction. The reintroduction is the culmination of years of work and the building of great relationships and we are extremely excited to be returning this ...

Volunteer to report wild turkey sightings
WDEL 1150AM
This reintroduction resulted in today's 5,000 wild turkeys in Delaware, which are crucial to the annual turkey hunting season. The information gathered by volunteers will help track wild turkey health, distribution and reproductive success. If you spot ...

First Killer Whale Reintroduced to Wild Has Baby National Geographic The only killer whale known to be put back into the wild after human intervention was spotted with her first baby last week. In 2002, a young killer whale named Springer was reintroduced to her pod in northern Vancouver Island (map), Canada, after she ... See all stories on this topic »

Osprey chicks to be reintroduced to the wild Dubuque Telegraph Herald Nature lovers and the simply curious can witness the reintroduction of osprey chicks Wednesday morning. The chicks will be reintroduced as part of the Mud Lake Osprey Project at 9 a.m. at Mud Lake Park, according to a news release. Translocating animals outside home turf is high risk ... Times of India AHMEDABAD: The latest guidelines of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on translocation of wildlife could prove to be a major ... Park life: The Cairngorms' lost beasts BBC News But beavers are just one animal on a list of 22 creatures assessed for potential reintroduction, or targeted conservation efforts, to Britain's largest national park. Wildlife on the list were either were wiped out because of over-hunting or ... See all stories on this topic » First Persian leopard cubs born in Russia for 50 years Phys.Org The Persian Leopard Reintroduction Program is run by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation with participation of the Sochi National Park, Caucasus Nature Reserve, A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, ... See all stories on this topic » Endangered minnow being reintroduced in MissouriKansas City Star A once abundant minnow that's been listed as federally endangered for 15 years and is now “in serious trouble” in Missouri is being reintroduced into waterways ... See all stories on this topic »

Publications:

Converse, S. J., Moore, C. T. and Armstrong, D. P. (2013), Demographics of reintroduced populations: Estimation, modeling, and decision analysis. The Journal of Wildlife Management, 77: 1081–1093. doi: 10.1002/jwmg.590

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, 27: 690–700. doi: 10.1111/cobi.12087

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, 27: 701–709. doi: 10.1111/cobi.12038

Reynolds, M. H., Weiser, E., Jamieson, I. and Hatfield, J. S. (2013), Demographic variation, reintroduction, and persistence of an island duck (Anas laysanensis). The Journal of Wildlife Management, 77: 1094–1103. doi: 10.1002/jwmg.582

Seidel, S. A., Comer, C. E., Conway, W. C., Deyoung, R. W., Hardin, J. B. and Calkins, G. E. (2013), Influence of translocations on eastern wild turkey population genetics in Texas. The Journal of Wildlife Management, 77: 1221–1231. doi: 10.1002/jwmg.575

Sites, J. W. (2013), Extinction, reintroduction, and restoration of a lizard meta-population equilibrium in the missouri ozarks. Molecular Ecology, 22: 3653–3655. doi: 10.1111/mec.12357

SMYSER, T. J., JOHNSON, S. A., PAGE, L. K., HUDSON, C. M. and RHODES, O. E. (2013), Use of Experimental Translocations of Allegheny Woodrat to Decipher Causal Agents of Decline. Conservation Biology, 27: 752–762. doi: 10.1111/cobi.12064

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.

More than life and death, part I: using measures of animal stress to monitor the success of reintroductions

As a plant ecologist, I find some of animal-specific issues in conservation translocations are particularly interesting and relevant to my current work writing a code and best practice guidance for undertaking conservation translocations in Scotland.  The implications of moving animals can affect their welfare and ultimately make or break a reintroduction (or other translocation) attempt.  In a paper I've recently read, David Jachowski and his co-authors (2013) look at elephant stress indicators (fecal glucocorticoid metabolites concentrations) in South Africa and demonstrate that an elevated physiological state, indicative of high stress, can take up to 25 years ameliorate. What was striking was the decrease in the coefficient of variation in this relationship which reduced by about half in a reintroduction that had taken place 24 years prior compared to one that had been undertaken the year before the study commenced. Effectively, this tells us that elephants might be subject to very high levels of stress immediately after release, whilst other individuals show levels of stress which are not so different to elephants that have not been moved.  Elephants are complex animals - behavioural, social and physiological cues can all contribute to whether an individual shows signs of stress, so it isn't surprising to see a big range of stress responses in a study such as this one which looks retrospectively at reintroductions in five separate locations.  The authors suggest that some causes of stress such as seasonal pressures from lack of food and higher temperatures, are out of the control of reserve managers, however human interaction, principally with tourists, can be reduced by providing refuge areas away from roads and developments and from which tourists are prevented from entering.

Given that elephants are such long-lived animals, we might expect that physical acclimatization will take a long time post-release. But what about other animals? A systematic review of animal reintroductions* by Lauren Harrington and her co-authors categorised the reported results according to measures that could be interpreted as welfare indicators, either directly or indirectly. The projects reviewed were mainly focused on mammals and birds (89% of 199 studies). Unsurprisingly, more than 70% reported survival rates, and reproduction was reported in 52%, dispersal in 42% home range establishment in 39% and population size in 36% of the projects reviewed. But to me, these measures give a very limited insight into the welfare implications of translocating animals. For example, Jachowski et al (2013) report that high stress in elephants causes incredibly aggressive behaviouir which can affect the survival of other species including humans. Harrington et al 's review revealed that only three studies (2%) incorporated physiological measures of stress similar to that used by Jachowski et al (2013). The review also showed that animal welfare during translocation was more than closely monitored than similar welfare indicators post-release (26% versus 14% respectively).

So when I'm recommending monitoring of animals post-release, what should this plant ecologist say? I'm very aware that it's easy to make demands on translocation practitioners from the comfort of my office but in reality, would stringent requirements to monitor stress indicators put people off undertaking conservation translocations? My current feeling is that all proposals for future animal translocations should incorporate plans to monitor stress indicators. The example of elephants killing people and other large animals (in one case >100 white rhinoceroses) may be an extreme one but effectively illustrates that just because translocated animals have survived, doesn't mean we can call the reintroduction a success.

* Although the authors refer to reintroductions in the title, the review actually encompasses various types of conservation translocation.

Harrington, L. A., Moehrenschlager, A., Gelling, M., Atkinson, R. P. D., Hughes, J., & Macdonald, D. W. (2013). Conflicting and Complementary Ethics of Animal Welfare Considerations in Reintroductions. Conservation Biology, n/a–n/a. doi:10.1111/cobi.12021

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