Rearing captive eastern hellbenders ( Cryptobranchus a. alleganiensis ) with moving water improves swim performance

Kenison, Erin K.; Williams, Rod N.

doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2018.01.013

Cited by 11 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…More detailed evaluations of wild animal behavior are generally undertaken to understand features of the social and ecological interactions of animals, as well as the impacts of human interventions or changes to the ecosystem on fitness and ecosystem function, rather than to understand their welfare state per se [e.g., ( 2 , 9 , 34 , 107 – 112 )]. Notable exceptions are the detailed studies of behavior often undertaken in the zoo context for the explicit purpose of assessing welfare state [e.g., ( 113 – 116 )] and systematic evaluations of wild behavior to improve the efficacy of strategies to control invasive species [e.g., reviewed by ( 117 – 119 )].…”

Section: Conception Of Animal Welfare Influences Its Evaluation and Ementioning

confidence: 99%

“Feelings and Fitness” Not “Feelings or Fitness”–The Raison d'être of Conservation Welfare, Which Aligns Conservation and Animal Welfare Objectives

et al. 2018

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Increasingly, human activities, including those aimed at conserving species and ecosystems (conservation activities) influence not only the survival and fitness but also the welfare of wild animals. Animal welfare relates to how an animal is experiencing its life and encompasses both its physical and mental states. While conservation biology and animal welfare science are both multi-disciplinary fields that use scientific methods to address concerns about animals, their focus and objectives sometimes appear to conflict. However, activities impacting detrimentally on the welfare of individual animals also hamper achievement of some conservation goals, and societal acceptance is imperative to the continuation of conservation activities. Thus, the best outcomes for both disciplines will be achieved through collaboration and knowledge-sharing. Despite this recognition, cross-disciplinary information-sharing and collaborative research and practice in conservation are still rare, with the exception of the zoo context. This paper summarizes key points developed by a group of conservation and animal welfare scientists discussing scientific assessment of wild animal welfare and barriers to progress. The dominant theme emerging was the need for a common language to facilitate cross-disciplinary progress in understanding and safeguarding the welfare of animals of wild species. Current conceptions of welfare implicit in conservation science, based mainly on “fitness” (physical states), need to be aligned with contemporary animal welfare science concepts which emphasize the dynamic integration of “fitness” and “feelings” (mental experiences) to holistically understand animals' welfare states. The way in which animal welfare is characterized influences the way it is evaluated and the emphasis put on different features of welfare, as well as, the importance placed on the outcomes of such evaluations and how that information is used, for example in policy development and decision-making. Salient examples from the New Zealand and Australian context are presented to illustrate. To genuinely progress our understanding and evaluation of wild animal welfare and optimize the aims of both scientific disciplines, conservation and animal welfare scientists should work together to evolve and apply a common understanding of welfare. To facilitate this, we propose the formal development of a new discipline, Conservation Welfare, integrating the expertise of scientists from both fields.

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Section: Conception Of Animal Welfare Influences Its Evaluation and Ementioning

confidence: 99%

“Feelings and Fitness” Not “Feelings or Fitness”–The Raison d'être of Conservation Welfare, Which Aligns Conservation and Animal Welfare Objectives

et al. 2018

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“…Using morphometric data from the length and weight inventories of the animals, we derived relationships pertaining to predicted weight and length and growth rates. Recent studies have investigated the influence of rearing system conditions (such as water movement) on growth and overall body morphology (Kenison and Williams ). Thus, comparison of the metrics for specific systems found by these studies may provide insight into the optimal design of hellbender culture systems.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent studies have investigated the influence of rearing system conditions (such as water movement) on growth and overall body morphology (Kenison and Williams 2018). Thus, comparison of the metrics for specific systems found by these studies may provide insight into the optimal design of hellbender culture systems.…”

Section: Hellbender Morphometricsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Propagation of Eastern Hellbenders Cryptobranchus alleganiensis alleganiensis in a Recirculating Aquaculture System at Shepherd of the Hills State Fish Hatchery

et al. 2018

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The hellbender Cryptobranchus alleganiensis is an endangered aquatic salamander inhabiting coldwater streams within the Ozark Highlands of Missouri. Over the past few decades, there has been a severe decline in the populations of the two subspecies of hellbender in this region—the Eastern hellbender C. a. alleganiensis and the Ozark hellbender C. a. bishopi—accompanied by little to no recruitment of young age‐classes; projections now call for negative long‐term population growth for both subspecies. Captive propagation is thus considered essential for the long‐term recovery of this species in Missouri, along with addressing the causes for its decline in the wild. Since 2007, Shepherd of the Hills Fish Hatchery has been the primary rearing facility in Missouri for the early life stages of Eastern hellbenders. This facility has focused on hatching fertilized eggs collected from the wild and rearing animals for repatriation into their natal streams. This paper describes the recirculating aquaculture system used to rear Eastern hellbenders, the culture techniques that have been developed, and some of the results.

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“…The release date in autumn could have put the cohort at a disadvantage compared to one in summer that would have maximized the period of time that individuals were at release sites prior to regular high flow events. Furthermore, captive-reared juveniles were likely unprepared for conditions at the sites because they were only exposed to stationary water during their time in captivity (Reading et al 2013;Kenison and Williams 2018). In the future, environmental enrichment should be explored to help condition captive-reared Hellbenders for life in a lotic system.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This approach can be problematic if animals attempt to return to their collection site, however, and strong homing behavior has been demonstrated in adult Hellbenders (Hillis and Bellis 1971;Gates et al 1985;Blais 1996). Captive-reared juveniles have shown potential as translocates (Bodinof et al 2012b), but a lack of conditioning might leave them unprepared for their new environment (Stamps and Swaisgood 2007;Kenison and Williams 2018). Investigating the differences in postaugmentation movement and habitat use patterns in the two groups can help formulate management recommendations for future translocations.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Movement and Habitat Use of Eastern Hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis alleganiensis) Following Population Augmentation

et al. 2018

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With amphibian declines at crisis levels, translocations, including population augmentations, are commonly used for amphibian conservation. Eastern Hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis alleganiensis) have declined to low densities in many areas of their range, making them ideal candidates for population augmentation. Both wild adults and captive-reared juveniles have been used for augmentations, but their suitability has never been directly compared. Herein, we use radio telemetry with Eastern Hellbenders to examine patterns of site fidelity, movement, and habitat use over a 2-yr period for adult residents, wild adult translocates, and captive-reared juvenile translocates. We used generalized linear models and generalized linear mixed models to identify temporal trends and explore the effects of residential status (resident vs. translocate) and origin/age (captive-reared juveniles vs. wild adults) on various ecological and behavioral traits relating to habitat. Site fidelity was high in adult residents and wild adult translocates, but lower in captive-reared juvenile translocates. Both adult and juvenile translocates had greater mean movement distances than residents, leading to larger home range sizes, but these differences decreased over time. Wild adult translocates had a higher probability of using artificial nest rocks than adult residents or captive-reared juvenile translocates. This pattern was most prevalent early in the study, indicating these shelters are particularly useful during the transition to release sites. Captive-reared juvenile translocates had lower site fidelity and utilized suboptimal habitat (smaller and fewer shelter rocks) compared to wild adults. Compared to previous studies, translocations had fewer negative effects on site residents or wild translocates and might be effective at promoting growth of Hellbender populations. However, translocations of captive-reared juveniles were less successful. As we are uncertain whether captive-rearing or ontogeny led to these differences, both longer head-starting times and conditioning should be explored to improve outcomes in captive-reared juvenile cohorts.

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Rearing captive eastern hellbenders ( Cryptobranchus a. alleganiensis ) with moving water improves swim performance

Cited by 11 publications

References 55 publications

“Feelings and Fitness” Not “Feelings or Fitness”–The Raison d'être of Conservation Welfare, Which Aligns Conservation and Animal Welfare Objectives

“Feelings and Fitness” Not “Feelings or Fitness”–The Raison d'être of Conservation Welfare, Which Aligns Conservation and Animal Welfare Objectives

Propagation of Eastern Hellbenders Cryptobranchus alleganiensis alleganiensis in a Recirculating Aquaculture System at Shepherd of the Hills State Fish Hatchery

Movement and Habitat Use of Eastern Hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis alleganiensis) Following Population Augmentation

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