Winter release and management of reintroduced migratory Whooping Cranes <i>Grus americana</i>

Urbanek, Richard P.; Fondow, Lara E. A.; Zimorski, Sara E.; Wellington, Marianne; Nipper, Mark A.

doi:10.1017/s0959270909990153

Cited by 33 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…These birds are costume‐reared and trained at the U.S. Geological Survey Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland and then transferred at one or two months of age to NNWR where they are trained to fly behind UL, which escort them during their first migration to wintering grounds in Florida. On the wintering grounds, UL birds have access to a pen and food, but they are generally not restricted to the pen (for more details on UL releases see Urbanek et al 2010). In addition, since 2005, a second release technique, direct autumn release (DAR), has been used, involving soft releases at NNWR in the vicinity of older Whooping Cranes or Sandhill Cranes ( Grus canadensis ) in the fall.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Demography of a reintroduced population: moving toward management models for an endangered species, the Whooping Crane

Servanty

Converse

Bailey

2014

Ecological Applications

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The reintroduction of threatened and endangered species is now a common method for reestablishing populations. Typically, a fundamental objective of reintroduction is to establish a self-sustaining population. Estimation of demographic parameters in reintroduced populations is critical, as these estimates serve multiple purposes. First, they support evaluation of progress toward the fundamental objective via construction of population viability analyses (PVAs) to predict metrics such as probability of persistence. Second, PVAs can be expanded to support evaluation of management actions, via management modeling. Third, the estimates themselves can support evaluation of the demographic performance of the reintroduced population (e.g., via comparison with wild populations). For each of these purposes, thorough treatment of uncertainties in the estimates is critical. Recently developed statistical methods (namely, hierarchical Bayesian implementations of state-space models) allow for effective integration of different types of uncertainty in estimation. We undertook a demographic estimation effort for a reintroduced population of endangered Whooping Cranes with the purpose of ultimately developing a Bayesian PVA for determining progress toward establishing a self-sustaining population, and for evaluating potential management actions via a Bayesian PVA-based management model. We evaluated individual and temporal variation in demographic parameters based upon a multi-state, mark-recapture model. We found that survival was relatively high across time and varied little by sex. There was some indication that survival varied by release method. Survival was similar to that observed in the wild population. Although overall reproduction in this reintroduced population is poor, birds formed social pairs when relatively young, and once a bird was in a social pair, it had a nearly 50% chance of nesting the following breeding season. Also, once a bird had nested, it had a high probability of nesting again. These results are encouraging, considering that survival and reproduction have been major challenges in past reintroductions of this species. The demographic estimates developed will support construction of a management model designed to facilitate exploration of management actions of interest, and will provide critical guidance in future planning for this reintroduction. An approach similar to what we describe could be usefully applied to many reintroduced populations.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When birds were located, their activity and social interactions were noted (e.g., whether birds were behaving as a breeding pair, were nesting, etc. ; for more details see Urbanek et al 2010, Converse et al 2012). Recoveries of dead birds were also included in our analysis; in most or all cases, dead birds were located via radio‐transmitters.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Demography of a reintroduced population: moving toward management models for an endangered species, the Whooping Crane

Servanty

Converse

Bailey

2014

Ecological Applications

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“…Depending on the biology of the species, this retraining can be extensive, as demonstrated by the use of microlight aircraft to train captive reared whooping crane ( Grus americana ) chicks to migrate across a continent (Urbanek et al . ). It is clear from the level of uncertainty in predicting reintroduction success that the costs of reintroduction are large and unlikely to decline in the near to mid‐term (Rahbek ).…”

Section: Conservation Prioritization When Extinction Is Reversiblementioning

confidence: 97%

“…It may also require extensive training of animals in behaviour that will allow them to function in the wildsuch as foraging, social skills and predator avoidance (Moseby, Carthey & Schroeder 2015). Depending on the biology of the species, this retraining can be extensive, as demonstrated by the use of microlight aircraft to train captive reared whooping crane (Grus americana) chicks to migrate across a continent (Urbanek et al 2010). It is clear from the level of uncertainty in predicting reintroduction success that the costs of reintroduction are large and unlikely to decline in the near to mid-term (Rahbek 1993).…”

Section: Management Actionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prioritizing revived species: what are the conservation management implications of de‐extinction?

Iacona

Maloney²,

Chades

et al. 2016

Functional Ecology

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Summary 1.De-extinction technology that brings back extinct species, or variants on extinct species, is becoming a reality with significant implications for biodiversity conservation. If extinction could be reversed there are potential conservation benefits and costs that need to be carefully considered before such action is taken. 2. Here, we use a conservation prioritization framework to identify and discuss some factors that would be important if de-extinction of species for release into the wild were a viable option within an overall conservation strategy. 3. We particularly focus on how de-extinction could influence the choices that a management agency would make with regard to the risks and costs of actions, and how these choices influence other extant species that are managed in the same system. 4. We suggest that a decision science approach will allow for choices that are critical to the implementation of a drastic conservation action, such as de-extinction, to be considered in a deliberate manner while identifying possible perverse consequences.

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“…Until they departed in the spring, birds had access to a pen and food (though they were not always restricted to the pen). Additional details about ultra-light led releases are provided in Urbanek et al (2005) and Urbanek et al (2009).…”

Section: Release Programmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bayesian analysis of multi-state data with individual covariates for estimating genetic effects on demography

2011

Self Cite

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Inbreeding depression is frequently a concern of managers interested in restoring endangered species. Decisions to reduce the potential for inbreeding depression by balancing genotypic contributions to reintroduced populations may exact a cost on long-term demographic performance of the population if those decisions result in reduced numbers of animals released and/or restriction of particularly successful genotypes (i.e., heritable traits of particular family lines). As part of an effort to restore a migratory flock of Whooping Cranes (Grus americana) to eastern North America using the offspring of captive breeders, we obtained a unique dataset which includes post-release mark-recapture data, as well as the pedigree of each released individual. We developed a Bayesian formulation of a multi-state model to analyze radio-telemetry, band-resight, and dead recovery data on reintroduced individuals, in order to track survival and breeding state transitions. We used studbook-based individual covariates to examine the comparative evidence for and degree of effects of inbreeding, genotype, and genotype quality on post-release survival of reintroduced individuals. We demonstrate implementation of the Bayesian multi-state model, which allows for the integration of imperfect detection, multiple data types, random effects, and individual-and time-dependent covariates. Our results provide only weak evidence for an effect of the quality of an individual's genotype in captivity on post-release survival as well as for an effect of inbreeding on post-release survival. We plan to integrate our results into a decisionanalytic modeling framework that can explicitly examine tradeoffs between the effects of inbreeding and the effects of genotype and demographic stochasticity on population establishment.

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Winter release and management of reintroduced migratory Whooping Cranes Grus americana

Cited by 33 publications

References 5 publications

Demography of a reintroduced population: moving toward management models for an endangered species, the Whooping Crane

Demography of a reintroduced population: moving toward management models for an endangered species, the Whooping Crane

Prioritizing revived species: what are the conservation management implications of de‐extinction?

Bayesian analysis of multi-state data with individual covariates for estimating genetic effects on demography

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