The successful recovery of imperiled species is dependent on knowledge of how demographic drivers mediate population growth and expansion. One of the largest species restoration projects has been the ...reintroduction of swift foxes Vulpes velox to southern Canada, where 947 foxes were released between 1983 and 1997. Swift foxes have since increased and expanded their range into northern Montana (USA), but have experienced a population decline and stall in recolonization over the past 10 years. The objective of this study was to estimate the survival and reproductive rates of swift foxes in northern Montana, which constitutes the southern edge of this population. In addition, we evaluated support for two different hypotheses of how environmental factors and several demographic factors influence survival. Although our length of monitoring was relatively short, we found that adult and juvenile annual survival rates were 54% and 74%, respectively, and fecundity was 0.85. We found the most support for the hypothesis that the percentage of native grassland at the 1‐km scale influenced survival and found that survival increased, on average, 2.1% for every 5% increase in grassland. Compared to previous estimates of swift fox population growth immediately following the release, our data suggest the population is currently stable. The long‐term successful recolonization and connectivity of swift fox populations in this region will likely be dependent on maintaining large tracts of contiguous grassland. Comparing the estimates of demographic rates among different points in space and time should help managers better understand the population dynamics and inform restoration strategies for recovering populations.
We estimated survival and reproductive rates of swift foxes at the edge of their distribution in Montana in order to determine the population growth rate and understand what factors influence population expansion. We found that the population is currently stable and that survival was most influenced by the degree of grassland fragmentation. Successful swift fox recolonization will likely be dependent on maintaining large tracts of intact grasslands.
The brown howler monkey ( Alouatta guariba ) is endemic to the Atlantic Forest of eastern Brazil and northeastern Argentina, threatened by extinction due to habitat loss and fragmentation, and ...hunting. Its reduced and isolated populations dramatically decreased and suffered local extinctions after recent yellow fever outbreaks, recommending the species risk uplist from Vulnerable to Endangered. In Brazil, the species occurs along eight states in sparse populations, including some large protected areas, and is being uplisted to Endangered. Following the National Action Plan for Conservation of the Atlantic Forest Primates and the Maned-sloth, and applying the Guidelines for Reintroductions and other Conservation Translocations (IUCN/CTSG), the Ex Situ Guidelines (IUCN/CPSG) and the One Plan Approach (IUCN/CPSG), a workshop was held on August 2021 to evaluate the need, requisites and roles of an integrated Population Management Program for A. guariba . Such program was developed in June 2022 defining the objectives of (i) restore in situ populations from ex situ populations, prioritizing populations in higher risk to prevent local extinctions, and (ii) establish an ex situ insurance population. This in situ – ex situ integrated management program was approved by ICMBio in February 2023, with actions recommended for all states along the species distribution. In Argentina, the species is Critically Endangered, with a remaining population of 20-50 individuals. Following the National Plan for Primate Conservation in Argentina, in a process similar to that in Brazil, two workshops were held in 2022/2023 to evaluate and define management actions for the long-term recovery of A. guariba . The priorities indicated were (i) reintroduction in ten potential areas in Misiones – due to a lower risk when compared to reinforcement of remaining populations, and (ii) establishing an ex situ management program in Argentina – still non-existent. The progressive collaboration between the initiatives of both countries is promoting the exchange of experiences and the integration of strategies. Here we summarize the planning and management carried out in Brazil and Argentina, highlighting the need for integrated measures. We debate on the progress and challenges, proposing next steps for developing and implementing a binational population management program for the conservation of the brown howler monkey.
More than 1/3 of Chinese native orchids are used as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) including many species of Dendrobium, and these Dendrobium species have been massively collected. The ...restoration-friendly cultivation model, i.e. planting targeted species in natural settings, is considered a new conservation tool for these epiphytic medicinal orchids, especially for Dendrobium species. In this study, we set out to develop an easy-to-use solution for practice of restoration-friendly cultivation in D. officinale, an critically endangered orchid with high medicinal value. We isolated fungi both from naturally occurred protocorms and roots of adult plants, and successfully obtained nine orchid mycorrhizal fungi (OMFs). Among them, five OMFs have been experimentally tested to promote seed germination and seedling development, but varied greatly in effectiveness. The most effective fungus, Sebacinales LQ, could quickly promote seedling formation and development in D. officinale. The percentage of protocorm formation could reach 65.90 ± 5.1%, and 4.57 ± 1.3% of seeds developed into seedlings at 30 days after incubation. At 60 days after incubation, the protocorm formation (83.71 ± 2.9%) already reached culmination and the percentage of seedlings (68.19 ± 3.8%) approached to peak level in LQ treatment. The fungus-seed bags, containing mixtures of fungal powders of LQ strains and seeds of D. officinale, were used as propagules and released in the original habitats of D. officinale. After one year, the percentages of seedlings in fungus-seed bags ranged from 13.16 ± 1.1% up to 20.88 ± 2.2% at three sites, and most seedlings appeared seemingly healthy. The fungus-seed bags showed many advantages in practice, e.g., low-cost mass production, long term storage, convenient transportation, controllable seedling quantity and density, ease of use in the field, and environmentally-friendly biodegradable paper bags. This low-cost and easy-to-use method could well achieve the target of restoration-friendly cultivation in D. officinale, and has universal applications for conservation translocations of epiphytic orchid based on symbiotic seeds germination.
Large mammals (megafauna) are disproportionately important for ecosystem functioning and biodiversity, but have been lost to disproportionate degrees, mostly in prehistoric times. Against the ...background of scientific knowledge regarding the state of ecosystems before a man-made wave of extinctions significantly reduced the numbers and diversity of megafauna on most continents, this article examines how (inter)national law and policy relate to efforts to restore large herbivores, omnivores and carnivores to terrestrial ecosystems around the world. Such megafauna rewilding, involving the (re)introduction of vanished species or proxies thereof, poses significant challenges to current laws and policies at national and domestic levels. These tend to have institutionalised a collective amnesia and myopia regarding what is ‘natural’ and ‘indigenous’. The success of future megafauna restoration efforts will partly depend on an understanding of what it takes to navigate, adjust or redesign applicable legal frameworks, and the article tables a research agenda to that end.
Invasive predators are responsible for declines in many animal species across the globe. To redress these declines, conservationists have undertaken substantial work to remove invasive predators or ...mitigate their effects. Yet, the challenges associated with removal of invasive predators mean that most successful conservation programs have been restricted to small islands, enclosures (“safe havens”), or refuge habitats where threatened species can persist. While these approaches have been, and will continue to be, crucial for the survival of many species, in some contexts they may eventually lock in a baseline where native species vulnerable to invasive predators are accepted as permanently absent from the wild (shifting baseline syndrome). We propose an explicit theme in conservation biology termed “coexistence conservation,” that is distinguished by its pursuit of innovative solutions that drive or enable adaptive evolution of threatened species and invasive predators to occur over the long term. We argue evolution has a large role to play but using it to adapt native species to a new environmental order requires a shift in mindset from small, isolated, and short‐term leaps to deliberate, staged steps within a long‐term strategy. A key principle of coexistence conservation is that predation is treated as the threat, rather than the predator, driving a focus on the outcome rather than the agent. Without a long‐term strategy, we face the permanent loss of many species in the wild. Coexistence conservation is a complementary approach to current practice and will play an important role in shifting our current trajectory from continued and rapid invasive predator‐driven defaunation to a world where invasive predators and native prey can coexist.
(a) The strategic framework within which coexistence conservation can be implemented. (b) Trials allow conservation scientists to test a priori hypotheses in an iterative manner to determine which tactics improve outcomes in an adaptive management framework whilst keeping risk at manageable levels.
Species translocations are popular tools in conservation, but may be increasingly motivated by species’ popularity, rather than their threat status. We analyzed relative contributions of threat ...status (a surrogate for extinction risk) and popularity (an estimate of the degree of public knowledge, awareness or notoriety) to the likelihood of developing translocation projects for a representative whole regional fauna (174 conservation translocations during the last two decades for 82 out of the 527 species of Spanish terrestrial vertebrates). Three measures of threat status were obtained from technical (IUCN) and legal sources. Popularity estimates were obtained from body size data and two different Internet search protocols. All combinations of the three factors used to estimate threat status were correlated, as were the three indicators of species popularity (internet popularity indexes and body mass). Selected estimates unbiasedly captured differences in both threat and popularity among species. Threat and popularity were only weakly correlated, as expected when considering faunas as a whole rather than the better-studied subsets. Threat status and popularity had significant and equivalent contributions to explain the development of conservation translocations. Popularity, or lack thereof, partly explained the development of projects for non-threatened but popular species, as well as the lack of projects for several highly endangered species unknown by the public. Observed mismatches between technical and social criteria can be prevented by (a) strict separation of conservation translocations from translocations directed to cover other social demands or (b) development of explicit, quantitative decision-making criteria aimed at rigorous
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The genetic effects of population bottlenecks have been well studied theoretically, in laboratory studies, and to some extent, in natural situations. The effects of serial population bottlenecks ...(SPBs), however, are less well understood. This is significant because recurrent population bottlenecks are likely to be a common feature of the life history of many species. The lack of understanding of SPBs in natural populations has certainly been hampered by a lack of good examples where it can be studied. We report the results of a study into island populations of North Island Saddleback (Philesturnus carunculatus rufusater) that have undergone 13 translocations since 1964, all but one of these has been deliberate and for which detailed records are available. We have examined nine island populations of this passerine bird, from the source population, three first-order bottlenecked and five second-order bottlenecked populations. We examine variation in these nine populations using multilocus minisatellite DNA markers, together with Mendelian loci comprising six microsatellite DNA loci and a variable isozyme locus. Despite the generally low level of genetic variation in the Saddleback source population, we were able to detect a pattern of significant changes in both the mean number of minisatellite DNA bands per individual and the frequency of alleles at the Mendelian loci, with increasing population bottlenecks. This study generally shows that in a natural population, SPBs result in more pronounced genetic changes than do single population bottlenecks by themselves, thereby highlighting their importance for the conservation of rare and endangered species. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
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