Breakeven Points in Nest Management of an Endangered Island Endemic Raptor

Abstract

ABSTRACT Conservationists often face tradeoffs. We present a tradeoff that we recently faced involving nest management of the endangered Puerto Rican Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus venator). Given our logistical constraints, we determined we were able to either continue our ongoing efforts to induce laying of a second clutch (hereafter, double clutching) of four nests per year, or we could stop double clutching and apply insecticide for parasitic nest flies (Philornis spp.) to as many nests as possible. Observed fledging rates justified our assumptions that the fledging rate of unmanaged nests was approximately one young per nest per year, whereas nests sprayed with insecticide for flies fledged two young, and double-clutched nests fledged three young. These three young from double-clutched nests were a combination of the young from both the parent-raised and hand-raised clutches. Although double clutching is more effective than spraying nests, it is also more labor intensive. We developed a model to determine how many nests we would need to spray to produce the same number of fledglings as if we continued the ongoing double clutching regime. Modeling revealed that if we could find and spray at least eight nests, then cessation of double clutching was justified. We also performed sensitivity analysis and determined that our management conclusion was robust to uncertainty in the assumed values of fledging rates. Our modeling exercise presents an example of informed decision making in the face of uncertainty.