Landscape Connectivity Influences Survival and Resource Use following Long‐Distance Translocation of Northern Bobwhite

Abstract

Translocation is an important component of northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) recovery efforts, given the scale of their decline and inability to rapidly recolonize recently restored habitat. Repopulating sites in northern latitudes that are distant from reliable source populations may require long‐distance trap and transport from southern locales, potentially compounding existing obstacles for this renascent population recovery technique. The landscape connectivity hypothesis predicts that site fidelity and survival would be lower if release properties are small and fragmented and home range sizes would be smaller and dispersal distances would be lower if habitat quality at the release site is perceived to be high and the surrounding matrix is of low permeability. We evaluated this hypothesis to determine if northern bobwhite survival, site fidelity, and resource selection following translocation differed between 2 contrasting landscapes in the Mid‐Atlantic region of the United States. We translocated 508 radio‐collared northern bobwhites from northern Florida and southern Georgia, to small, fragmented properties on the eastern shore of Maryland and large, contiguous properties in southern New Jersey, USA. We monitored northern bobwhites via radio‐telemetry from approximately 1 April through 30 September, 2015–2018, 2–7 times a week. Breeding season (182 days after release) survival varied among sites, and was generally higher at the 2 New Jersey release sites than at the 2 Maryland sites, yet an acclimation period is ostensibly required to obtain reasonable breeding survival estimates to elicit population growth. Site fidelity, maximum dispersal distances, and home range sizes were lower at the smaller, fragmented Maryland properties than the larger New Jersey properties. These results support the landscape connectivity hypothesis such that reduced connectivity in our study decreased site fidelity and survival. Temporal variation in survival was potentially an artifact of translocation stress or maladaptive behavior during initial acclimation to the release sites, indicating that higher stocking rates may be needed to provide adequate founder abundance for translocation success. Northern bobwhites used early‐successional cover at all sites, though selection varied based on scale of analysis and landscape context. These vital rate estimates and resource use patterns should be used to guide future translocations within the Mid‐Atlantic, provide perspective for this population restoration technique range wide, and stimulate further investigation into limiting factors. © 2020 The Wildlife Society.

Dynamic simulation of the grassland connectivity and the effects of landscape pattern in China's Poyang Lake from the integrated perspective of habitat and biology

“…Landscape connectivity analysis based on graph theory can well simulate landscape functional connectivity based on the characteristics of landscape structure and ecological process (Liu, Yin, et al, 2018). This method has been widely used in wildlife protection and regional spatial planning (Clauzel et al, 2018; Coppola et al, 2021; Rio‐Maior et al, 2019). In this study, we adopted the graph‐based connectivity indices including number of links (NL), number of components (NC), Harary index (H) and flux index (F) reflecting the overall level of connectivity, landscape coincidence probability (LCP), integral index of connectivity (IIC), area‐weighted flux (AWF) and probability of connectivity (PC) reflecting the possibility level of connectivity to analyse the changes of functional connectivity of grassland under different water levels and dispersal distances (Table 2).…”

“…This method has been widely used in wildlife protection and regional spatial planning (Clauzel et al, 2018;Coppola et al, 2021;Rio-Maior et al, 2019). In this study, we 2).…”