Captive-reared burrowing owls show higher site-affinity, survival, and reproductive performance when reintroduced using a soft-release

Mitchell, Aimee Marie; Wellicome, Troy I.; Brodie, Dawn; Cheng, Kimberly M.

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2010.12.019

Cited by 69 publications

(72 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Under experimental conditions, three‐spined stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus originating from a more benign early life environment senesced at a slower rate than those that experienced a harsh early life environment (Kim et al., ). In the same way, Mitchell, Wellicome, Brodie, and Cheng () found differences in the subsequent breeding performance of reintroduced burrowing owls Athene cunicularia hypugaea subjected to contrasting release methods. These owls were likely to have cohort level differences in fitness or condition resulting from their early life environment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 72%

Sex‐specific patterns of reproductive senescence in a long‐lived reintroduced raptor

Murgatroyd

Roos

Evans

et al. 2018

Journal of Animal Ecology

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For many species, there is evidence that breeding performance changes as an individual ages. In iteroparous species, breeding performance often increases through early life and is expected to level out or even decline (senesce) later in life. An individual's sex and conditions experienced in early life may also affect breeding performance and how this changes with age. Long-term monitoring of individuals from reintroduced populations can provide unique opportunities to explore age-related trends in breeding performance that might otherwise be logistically challenging. We used a unique dataset from a reintroduced population of white-tailed eagles Haliaeetus albicilla in Scotland, which has been intensively monitored since their initial reintroduction in 1975, to study age- and sex-specific trends in two measures of breeding performance. This monitoring provided data on the breeding performance of known individuals ranging in age from 3 to 26 years. We also explored changes in breeding performance in relation to early life experience (i.e., whether they were released or fledged in the wild). Breeding performance increased with age in early life in a similar manner for both sexes. We found stronger evidence for senescence in breeding performance in males than females. However, late-life female breeding success was associated with early life experience, while male senescent trends were not apparently impacted by conditions experienced during early life. Sexual differences in senescence mean that older males are less likely to breed successfully compared to older females, and this may influence females' mate changes later in life. This difference may suggest a linked sexual difference in survival rates or the possibility of proactive partner change by females in later life in this typically monogamous biparental species.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 72%

Sex‐specific patterns of reproductive senescence in a long‐lived reintroduced raptor

Murgatroyd

Roos

Evans

et al. 2018

Journal of Animal Ecology

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“…Our experimental results confirm findings from observational studies that satellite burrows are important for burrowing owls and support the idea that burrowing owls select nest sites with satellite burrows. This study provides justification for installing multiple artificial burrows when these are used for conservation or mitigation (Trulio , Belthoff and Smith ), including during translocation efforts (e.g., Leupin and Low , Mitchell et al ). Our results provide further justification for management of fossorial mammals to provide a sufficient density of burrows surrounding nest burrows.…”

Section: Management Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Response of burrowing owls to experimental removal of satellite burrows

Ronan

Rosenberg

2014

Jour. Wild. Mgmt.

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Studies of habitat relationships indicate that burrowing owls (Athene cunicularia) often select nest sites with multiple burrows. This behavior may increase survival of post‐emergent nestlings. We experimentally blocked access to burrows within 20 m of nests (satellite burrows) within a large grassland in central California to evaluate the response by year‐round resident burrowing owls to removal of satellite burrows. We compared reproductive performance and nest fidelity between owls whose access to potential satellite burrows was blocked and owls whose nests had similar numbers of naturally occurring burrows within 20 m of the nest prior to manipulation. Adult owls and their young moved away from treatment nests, but reproductive rates between owls from treatment and control nests did not differ. Movements involved the entire family, occurred before young had fledged, and owls did not return to the natal nest burrow. Movements ranged from 25 m to 120 m and occurred at 5 of the 7 treatment nests with young. No such movement occurred at any of the control nests. Our findings support results from correlational studies that multiple nearby burrows influence nest site selection. © 2014 The Wildlife Society

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“…Mitchell et al, 2011), supplementary feeding (e.g. foraging, predator avoidance, conspecific interactions) prior to translocation to a final release destination.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimizing release strategies: a stepping‐stone approach to reintroduction

Lloyd¹,

Hostetter

Jackson³

et al. 2018

Animal Conservation

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Evaluation of alternative management strategies enables informed decisions to accelerate species recovery. For reintroductions, post-release survival to reproductive age is a key parameter influencing population growth. Here, we trial a 'stepping-stone' method to maximize the success of captive-bred animals when the availability of more suitable wild-born release candidates is limited. Our approach makes use of relatively safe and established wild populations to prepare captive-bred individuals for eventual translocation to a final release destination, thus building resilience through establishment of multiple populations over time. We developed a novel multievent model integrating encounter history and biotelemetry data to evaluate reintroduction strategies for the critically endangered Vancouver Island marmot Marmota vancouverensis. We compared post-release survival of 176 individuals (52 wild-born, 47 captive-bred marmots released directly to destinations, and 77 captive-bred marmots released with a stepping-stone approach). Survival estimates to prime breeding-age (PBA), were then used to quantify expected success of potential release strategies. Our analysis indicates that post-release survival varies by source population and release method, as well as age, season, year, and years since release. Conditional on an objective of maximizing survival to PBA, our results suggest that using wild-born marmots for translocations as often as possible, and stepping-stone captive-bred marmots prior to final release, will result in the best outcomes. There was a 0.86 probability that survival to PBA was greater for captive-bred marmots released as yearlings using a stepping-stone approach (survival to PBA mode = 0.13, 95% CRI = 0.05-0.30) than for captive-bred animals that were directly released to destination sites as one-year-olds (survival to PBA mode = 0.04, 95% CRI = 0.01-0.24). Consequently, the stepping-stone approach yields much higher population establishment or growth potential than previous release strategies that used captive-bred marmots. Optimizing the combination of release candidates, sites and timing can thereby increase the effectiveness of reintroductions.

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Captive-reared burrowing owls show higher site-affinity, survival, and reproductive performance when reintroduced using a soft-release

Cited by 69 publications

References 34 publications

Sex‐specific patterns of reproductive senescence in a long‐lived reintroduced raptor

Sex‐specific patterns of reproductive senescence in a long‐lived reintroduced raptor

Response of burrowing owls to experimental removal of satellite burrows

Optimizing release strategies: a stepping‐stone approach to reintroduction

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