Reintroduction of Bridled Nailtail Wallabies Beyond Fences at Scotia Sanctuary – Phase 1

Forty male bridled nailtail wallabies Onychogalea fraenata were translocated from an on-site captive breeding compound to two release areas beyond the 8000 ha conservation fences at Scotia Sanctuary (far western New South Wales) in late July 2010. We tested the hypothesis that site fidelity (facilitated by spreading soil laden with female bridled nailtail wallaby odour at the release site) would increase survivorship by restricting animals to Scotia where intensive pest animal control has occurred. Two groups of fifteen animals were fitted with radio collars and released at the two areas (odour-added and odour-free) and monitored intensively for three months. Seven of the bridled nailtail wallabies survived this period, 19 died and four remain unaccounted for. Of the 19 that died, three were killed by introduced red foxes Vulpes vulpes, two by wedge-tailed eagles Aquila audax and one by a dingo/dog Canis lupus dingo. Two bridled nailtail wallabies died from pneumonia. The causes of death for the remaining 11 individuals are unknown. Following their release, 13 bridled nailtail wallabies remained on Scotia whilst the other 13 left the sanctuary (excluding the four that were censored). Those individuals that stayed on Scotia had much higher survival (46%) than the dispersers (8%). This result demonstrates the importance of encouraging the released animals to remain within the area that is subject to intensive predator control. The bridled nailtail wallabies were released at two sites: in an attempt to encourage site-philopatry we added soil laden with bridled nailtail wallaby urine and faeces at one of these sites. Males released here tended to travel less far, and had higher survival, than the males released at the ‘odour-free’ site. We believe the wandering males were searching for mating opportunities. Philopatry may be encouraged and survival increased if females are released with males in future phases of the project. We note that the bridled nailtail wallaby population in Scotia’s 8000 ha feral free area, and also in Scotia’s captive breeding colony, continued to increase during the initial three months of the translocation

Using the IUCN red list to determine effective conservation strategies

Threatened species lists continue to grow while the world’s governments fail to meet biodiversity conservation goals. Clearly, we are failing in our attempts to conserve biodiversity. Yet 37 mammal species genuinely improved in status in the 2009 IUCN Red List, suggesting there are ways to successfully conserve biodiversity. Here, I compare the threats and conservation actions (proposed and implemented) by the expert assessors of the Red List of improving species to a further 144 declining mammal species to determine whether specific threats were more easily remedied, and whether certain conservation actions were more successful than others. Declining species were faced with different threatening processes to mammals improving in status suggesting some threats were easier to treat (e.g. hunting) than others (climate change, invasive species). Declining species had different proposed and implemented conservation actions than improving species suggesting some actions are more successful than others. Threatened species were invariably found in conservation areas, suggesting protected area creation alone is not an overly successful strategy for species at risk of extinction. Conservation actions were more frequently implemented for improving than declining species suggesting active conservation is effective in improving the status of biodiversity. There were significant differences between proposed and implemented conservation actions suggesting some actions are easier to implement than others. Reintroduction, captive breeding and hunting restriction were more effective in conserving mammals than site creation and invasive species control. These findings highlight effective conservation actions for mammals worldwide and allow the rationalisation of threat mitigation measures to ensure economically justifiable biodiversity conservation strategies.http://www.springerlink.com/content/0960-3115/nf201

Fear of the dark? A mesopredator mitigates large carnivore risk through nocturnality, but humans moderate the interaction.

While constrained by endogenous rhythms, morphology and ecology, animals may still exhibit flexible activity patterns in response to risk. Temporal avoidance of interspecific aggression can enable access to resources without spatial exclusion. Apex predators, including humans, can affect mesopredator activity patterns. Human context might also modify temporal interactions between predators. We explored activity patterns, nocturnality and the effects of human activity upon a guild of carnivores (grey wolf, Canis lupus; Eurasian lynx, Lynx lynx; red fox, Vulpes vulpes) using travel routes in Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia. Humans were diurnal, foxes nocturnal and large carnivores active during the night, immediately after sunrise and before sunset. Carnivore activity patterns overlapped greatly and to a similar extent for all pairings. Activity curves followed expectations based on interspecific killing, with activity peaks coinciding where body size differences were small (wolf and lynx) but not when they were intermediate (foxes to large carnivores). Carnivore activity, particularly fox, overlapped much less with that of diurnal humans. Foxes responded to higher large carnivore activity by being more nocturnal. Low light levels likely provide safer conditions by reducing the visual detectability of mesopredators. The nocturnal effect of large carnivores was however moderated and reduced by human activity. This could perhaps be due to temporal shielding or interference with risk cues. Subtle temporal avoidance and nocturnality may enable mesopredators to cope with interspecific aggression at shared spatial resources. Higher human activity moderated the effects of top-down temporal suppression which could consequently affect the trophic interactions of mesopredators.Nacionalni Park Plitvička Jezera (Plitvice Lakes National Park), The Bernd Thies Foundation, EuroNatur, Bangor University, The UK Wolf Conservation Trust, The Coalbourn Charitable Trust, Ann Vernon Memorial Travel Fund and Sir Ian McKellen.http://link.springer.com/journal/265pm2020Centre for Wildlife Managemen

Estimating the Racial Composition of Groups of Faces: An Ensemble Other-Race Effect

In the current study we presented Asian and Caucasian participants with brief displays containing 16 faces and asked them to judge whether there were more Asians or Caucasians present. We varied the physical proportion of each race in the display using the method of constant stimuli and obtained estimates of the point of subjective equality (PSE) by fitting cumulative normal functions to individual data. Consistent with recent findings on “ensemble” face processing, participants were able to make group estimates quite accurately. However, the estimates from the two groups of participants did not overlap, with Asian participants appearing to weight other-race faces more heavily than Caucasian participants. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of an other-race effect in the context of groups of faces

Do Differing Levels of Boldness Influence the Success of Translocation? : A Pilot Study on Red Squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris)

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Development by Design: Mitigating Wind Development's Impacts on Wildlife in Kansas

Wind energy, if improperly sited, can impact wildlife through direct mortality and habitat loss and fragmentation, in contrast to its environmental benefits in the areas of greenhouse gas, air quality, and water quality. Fortunately, risks to wildlife from wind energy may be alleviated through proper siting and mitigation offsets. Here we identify areas in Kansas where wind development is incompatible with conservation, areas where wind development may proceed but with compensatory mitigation for impacts, and areas where development could proceed without the need for compensatory mitigation. We demonstrate that approximately 10.3 million ha in Kansas (48 percent of the state) has the potential to provide 478 GW of installed capacity while still meeting conservation goals. Of this total, approximately 2.7 million ha would require no compensatory mitigation and could produce up to 125 GW of installed capacity. This is 1,648 percent higher than the level of wind development needed in Kansas by 2030 if the United States is to get 20 percent of its electricity from wind. Projects that avoid and offset impacts consistent with this analysis could be awarded “Green Certification.” Certification may help to expand and sustain the wind industry by facilitating the completion of individual projects sited to avoid sensitive areas and protecting the industry's reputation as an ecologically friendly source of electricity

Post-Release Dispersal in Animal Translocations: Social Attraction and the “Vacuum Effect”

Animal translocations are human-induced colonizations that can represent opportunities to contribute to the knowledge on the behavioral and demographic processes involved in the establishment of animal populations. Habitat selection behaviors, such as social cueing, have strong implications on dispersal and affect the establishment success of translocations. Using modeling simulations with a two-population network model (a translocated population and a remnant population), we investigated the consequences of four habitat selection strategies on post-translocation establishment probabilities in short- and long-lived species. Two dispersal strategies using social cues (conspecific attraction and habitat copying) were compared to random and quality-based strategies. We measured the sensitivity of local extinctions to dispersal strategies, life cycles, release frequencies, remnant population and release group sizes, the proportion of breeders and the connectivity between populations. Our results indicate that social behaviors can compromise establishment as a result of post-release dispersal, particularly in long-lived species. This behavioral mechanism, the “vacuum effect”, arises from increased emigration in populations that are small relative to neighboring populations, reducing their rate of population growth. The vacuum effect can drive small remnant populations to extinction when a translocated group is large. In addition, the magnitude of the vacuum effect varies non-linearly with connectivity. The vacuum effect represents a novel form of the behaviorally mediated Allee effect that can cause unexpected establishment failures or population extinctions in response to social cueing. Accounting for establishment probabilities as a conditional step to the persistence of populations would improve the accuracy of predicting the fates of translocated or natural (meta)populations

The Scotia Science Symposium 2011

Introduction to the Scotia Paper

Will systematic reviews facilitate translational behavioral ecology? With a few conditions: a comment on Berger-Tal et al.

No abstract available.https://academic.oup.com/behecohj2020Centre for Wildlife Managemen

A method to predict overall food preferences

Most natural ecosystems contain animals feeding on many different types of food, but it is difficult to predict what will be eaten when food availabilities change. We present a method that estimates food preference over many study sites, even when number of food types vary widely from site to site. Sampling variation is estimated using bootstrapping. We test the precision and accuracy of this method using computer simulations that show the effects of overall number of food types, number of sites, and proportion of missing prey items per site. Accuracy is greater with fewer missing prey types, more prey types and more sites, and is affected by the number of sites more than the number of prey types. We present a case study using lion (Panthera leo) feeding data and show that preference vs prey size follows a bell-curve. Using just two estimated parameters, this curve can be used as a general way to describe predator feeding patterns. Our method can be used to: test hypotheses about what factors affect prey selection, predict preferences in new sites, and estimate overall prey consumed in new sites.The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and a Hugh Kelly Fellowship from Rhodes University, Grahamstown, SA.http://www.plosone.orgdm2022Mammal Research Institut