Translocation in Conservation Flashcards
What is translocation?
Does ther have to be a conservation or scientific reason to help?
- The human mediated movement of living organisms from one area, with release to another
- Conservation translocation is the intentional movement and release of a living organism where the primary objective is a conservation benefit
-this will usually comprise improving the conservation status of the focal species locally or globally , and/or restoring natural ecosystem functions or processes
What are two types of translocation? What are the 2 categories of each type?
Types of translocation
1. Population Restoration - Movement within range
-There is Reinforcement and Reintroduction
2. Conservation introduction - movement outside of range
-There is assisted colonization and ecological replacement
What are two reasons why sustainable translocation of wildlife happens?
- Augment population that is struggling. Need to increase population size so you bring more animals
- Reestablish extirpated population. Put more individuals in an extirpated area
Before the translocation happens - lots of research needs to happen! What are 4 questions you would ask about the the destination?
- Did the animal occur there are some point?
- What made it disappear?
- has that threat been mitigated/reduced? Has it gone away?
-Ex: if hunting was an issue it would not help to translocate. However, if it was a natural event then the threat is gone. - Is the landscape/area okay to put the animals back in there?
- If a volcano erupted and the landscape is destroyed then translocation would not help
What has been the purpose of past relocations?
- Biomedical research - Long tailed Macaques in Mauritius.
Mauritius breeds macaques in captivity - other research
-Texas - Japanese Macaques
-Cayo Santiago -Rhesus macaques (they know all the groups and fenerations here)
-Catemaco - Stumped tailed macaques (overweight due to tourists feeding them) - Political,religious , recreational reasons
- Accidental relocation
- When animals are moved to place accidentally
- Black Rats brought to madagascar by boat
- Or european squirrels were not introduced to america that came by boat by mistake
- Hippos are native to africa and big colony of hippos to south america for a personal zoo
- Anything introduced that is exotic that brings disease is because they were brought on a boat or crate
○ They were moved to an area by accident
What was a successful case of past relocations?
Successful welfare-motivated translocation: Olive baboons
Ex: olive baboons
* They ate the crops of farmers in Kenya
* Crop raiding was a problem so they needed to move them elsewhere
* They were translocated from farmland to natural habitats and used provisioning
○ And they survived the translocation
Although relocation is very complicated what have we learned a lot from research on which 5 topics
- Birth rates
- Death rates
- Body condition
- Group size
- Parasites
What is IUCN’S recommended goal for translocation?
Who should it benefit?
- Every conservation translocation should have clearly defined goals
- To benefit: population, species and/or ecosystem
What are the 5 guidelines a new location would need to be able to support a self-sustaining population?
- Large enough with sufficient resources OR be connected to other populations
- Appropriate climate
- Protected and free of human threats
- Part of landscape that meets needs of human communities
- Presence of translocated individuals must be compatible with land use regulations
What is reinforcement?
What is the current population?
What is the goal of reinforcement?
- Intentional movement and release of an organism into an existing population of conspecifics
- Basically- **we know there is at least one more in the area so more individuals are added because population is low **
- Destination - within its normal distribution
- Current populaiton: 1 +
- **Goal: boost population size or genetic variation **
- Ex: Calgary zoo has been reintroducing marmots
What is reintroduction?
What is the current population?
What is the goal of reintroduction?
- in intentional movement and release of an organism inside its indigenous range from which it has disappeared
- Basically- **We know they use to live there but now they are gone/ extirpated. Individuals will be added to where they use to exist **
- Destination: within its normal distribution
- Current population: 0
*** Goal: re-establish a population **
What was an unsuccessful case of reintroduction?
Golden lion tamarins bred in captivity were not use to predators in the area or did not call when there was a predator so they all died after reintroduction
What is assisted colonization ?
What is the current population?
What is the goal of assisted colonization?
- intentional movement and release of an organism outside its indigenous range to avoid extinction of populations of the focal species
- if for example all forest is gone - **Need to move individuals to an area where they will survive **, needing to move them outside their range
- Destination: outside its nomal distribution
- Current population :0
- Goal: **prevent global extinction when habitat within its normal range is changing **
What is ecological replacement ?
What is the current population?
What is the the goal of ecological replacement?
- Intentional movement and release of an organism outside its indigenous range to perform a specific ecological function
- Destination :outside its normal distribution
- Current population: 0
- **Goal: restore a specific ecological function **
What is an example of ecological replacement?
in New Zealand Takahe birds are grazing birds and eat the grass. They went extinct when humans arrived.
- Cows were placed on the land to graze the overgrown grass fields to replace the function the birds fulfilled for the ecosystem.
