Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Raptor reintroductions: Cost‐effective alternatives to captive breeding

Raptor reintroductions: Cost‐effective alternatives to captive breeding Reintroductions are becoming a popular tool to prevent extinctions, although their overall success rate is low. Assessing the efficiency and cost‐effectiveness of different reintroduction strategies may help identify and promote efficient practices. Captive‐breeding is widely used in animal reintroductions, although concerns have been raised about relatively high failure rates and economic costs. Here, we compared the effectiveness of two simultaneously used strategies in the reintroduction of the Bonelli’s eagle on the island of Mallorca: The release of captive‐bred chicks and wild‐reared, translocated non‐juveniles. To do so, we estimated the main vital rates for individuals released by both strategies and used these to perform population simulations to assess their overall performances. The use of wild‐reared non‐juveniles showed a trend with higher numbers of breeding pairs 10 years after the end of releases (14.75 pairs, 95% CI 4–25 vs. 11.21 pairs, 95% CI 2–24) and was the only strategy that prevented extinction in the long term. Following that, based on cost estimations of every strategy and different reintroduction budgets, we assessed the cost‐effectiveness of releasing wild‐reared non‐juveniles compared with two captive‐breeding alternatives: Releasing chicks either originally from breeding programmes or extracted from nests in natural populations. Again, releasing wild‐reared non‐juveniles was the only strategy that prevented long‐term extinction in all economic scenarios (i.e. low‐budget scenario 21.49 pairs, 95% CI 2–25). The use of chicks sourced from captive‐breeding programmes did not guarantee long‐term persistence even in high‐budget scenarios (14.50 pairs, 95% CI 0–25). Releasing wild‐reared non‐juveniles boosts early recruitment to the breeding population and early reproduction, which can be key for reintroduction success. However, in some scenarios, post‐release effects can be stronger in wild‐reared individuals, especially because of high translocation stress and post‐release dispersal. Hence, we recommend undertaking careful evaluation of the pros and cons of every strategy and embracing adaptive management to choose best strategies. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Animal Conservation Wiley

Raptor reintroductions: Cost‐effective alternatives to captive breeding

12 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/wiley/raptor-reintroductions-cost-effective-alternatives-to-captive-breeding-Rzh6bARwCO

References (91)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
Copyright © 2022 The Zoological Society of London
ISSN
1367-9430
eISSN
1469-1795
DOI
10.1111/acv.12729
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Reintroductions are becoming a popular tool to prevent extinctions, although their overall success rate is low. Assessing the efficiency and cost‐effectiveness of different reintroduction strategies may help identify and promote efficient practices. Captive‐breeding is widely used in animal reintroductions, although concerns have been raised about relatively high failure rates and economic costs. Here, we compared the effectiveness of two simultaneously used strategies in the reintroduction of the Bonelli’s eagle on the island of Mallorca: The release of captive‐bred chicks and wild‐reared, translocated non‐juveniles. To do so, we estimated the main vital rates for individuals released by both strategies and used these to perform population simulations to assess their overall performances. The use of wild‐reared non‐juveniles showed a trend with higher numbers of breeding pairs 10 years after the end of releases (14.75 pairs, 95% CI 4–25 vs. 11.21 pairs, 95% CI 2–24) and was the only strategy that prevented extinction in the long term. Following that, based on cost estimations of every strategy and different reintroduction budgets, we assessed the cost‐effectiveness of releasing wild‐reared non‐juveniles compared with two captive‐breeding alternatives: Releasing chicks either originally from breeding programmes or extracted from nests in natural populations. Again, releasing wild‐reared non‐juveniles was the only strategy that prevented long‐term extinction in all economic scenarios (i.e. low‐budget scenario 21.49 pairs, 95% CI 2–25). The use of chicks sourced from captive‐breeding programmes did not guarantee long‐term persistence even in high‐budget scenarios (14.50 pairs, 95% CI 0–25). Releasing wild‐reared non‐juveniles boosts early recruitment to the breeding population and early reproduction, which can be key for reintroduction success. However, in some scenarios, post‐release effects can be stronger in wild‐reared individuals, especially because of high translocation stress and post‐release dispersal. Hence, we recommend undertaking careful evaluation of the pros and cons of every strategy and embracing adaptive management to choose best strategies.

Journal

Animal ConservationWiley

Published: Apr 1, 2022

Keywords: reintroductions; evidence‐based conservation; long‐lived species; cost‐effectiveness; captive breeding; translocations; raptors; adaptive management

There are no references for this article.