Abstract
It is essential to choose suitable habitat when reintroducing a species into its former range. Habitat quality may influence an individual’s dispersal decisions and also ultimately where they choose to settle. We examined whether variation in habitat quality (quantified by the level of ground vegetation cover and the installation of nest boxes) influenced the movement, habitat choice and survival of a reintroduced bird species. We experimentally reintroduced seven social groups (43 individuals) of the brown treecreeper (Climacteris picumnus) into two nature reserves in south-eastern Australia. We radio-tracked 18 brown treecreepers from release in November 2009 until February 2010. We observed extensive movements by individuals irrespective of the release environment or an individual’s gender. This indicated that individuals were capable of dispersing and actively selecting optimum habitat. This may alleviate pressure on wildlife planners to accurately select the most optimum release sites, so long as the species’ requirements are met. There was significant variation in movement between social groups, suggesting that social factors may be a more important influence on movement than habitat characteristics. We found a significant effect of ground vegetation cover on the likelihood of settlement by social groups, with high rates of settlement and survival in dry forests, rather than woodland (where the species typically resides), which has implications for the success of woodland restoration. However, overall the effects of variation in habitat quality were not as strong as we had expected, and resulted in some unpredicted effects such as low survival and settlement in woodland areas with medium levels of ground vegetation cover. The extensive movement by individuals and unforeseen effects of habitat characteristics make it difficult to predict the outcome of reintroductions, the movement behaviour and habitat selection of reintroduced individuals, particularly when based on current knowledge of a species’ ecology.
Highlights
Species reintroduction programmes aim to re-establish a population of a locally-extinct species within its historical range [1]
We examined whether experimental treatments at the reintroduction site influenced the movement, selection of final home range and survival of reintroduced brown treecreepers
The key findings of our analyses were: 1) some individuals made extensive movements irrespective of the release site habitat characteristics or gender; 2) social factors appeared to influence the movement and survival of brown treecreeper individuals more than habitat; and 3) brown treecreepers showed some preference for dry forest areas, there was only limited evidence that experimental restoration treatments influenced the selection of final home range and survival
Summary
Species reintroduction programmes aim to re-establish a population of a locally-extinct species within its historical range [1]. The success of a program is often dependent upon the suitability of the habitat at the release site [4,6,7,8]. The habitat quality at a release site is likely to influence the movement of released individuals. Variations in habitat quality have been shown to influence the dispersal strategies of both reintroduced species [9] and natal dispersers [13,14]. Dispersal away from a release site following reintroduction may be influenced by the translocation process, releasing individuals within an unfamiliar environment and experiences in the natal habitat [16,18]. Some released individuals may move rapidly away from a release site [19,20], move greater distances than is usually recorded for the species [21,22,23], or even attempt to return to the home capture site [18,24]
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