Multiyear monitoring of survival following mitigation-driven translocation of a long-lived threatened reptile.

Autor: Dickson BG; Conservation Science Partners, Inc., 11050 Pioneer Trail, Suite 202, Truckee, CA, 96161, U.S.A.; Landscape Conservation Initiative, School of Earth and Sustainability, Northern Arizona University, P.O. Box 5694, Flagstaff, AZ, 86011-5694, U.S.A., Scherer RD; Conservation Science Partners, Inc., 11050 Pioneer Trail, Suite 202, Truckee, CA, 96161, U.S.A., Kissel AM; Conservation Science Partners, Inc., 11050 Pioneer Trail, Suite 202, Truckee, CA, 96161, U.S.A., Wallace BP; Conservation Science Partners, Inc., 11050 Pioneer Trail, Suite 202, Truckee, CA, 96161, U.S.A., Langin KM; Conservation Science Partners, Inc., 11050 Pioneer Trail, Suite 202, Truckee, CA, 96161, U.S.A., Gray ME; Conservation Science Partners, Inc., 11050 Pioneer Trail, Suite 202, Truckee, CA, 96161, U.S.A., Scheib AF; Scheib Biological LLC, 2625 Chateau Clermont Street, Henderson, NV, 89044, U.S.A., Weise B; Southwestern Ecological Research Company, 215 E. 18th Street, Tucson, AZ, 85701, U.S.A.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology [Conserv Biol] 2019 Oct; Vol. 33 (5), pp. 1094-1105. Date of Electronic Publication: 2019 Apr 22.
DOI: 10.1111/cobi.13301
Abstrakt: Translocation is used by managers to mitigate the negative impacts of development on species. Moving individuals to a new location is challenging, and many translocation attempts have failed. Robust, posttranslocation monitoring is therefore important for evaluating effects of translocation on target species. We evaluated the efficacy of a translocation designed to mitigate the effects of a utility-scale solar energy project on the U.S. federally listed Mojave desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii). The species is a long-lived reptile threatened by a variety of factors, including habitat loss due to renewable energy development in the Mojave Desert and portions of the Colorado Desert in southern California (southwestern United States). We translocated 58 individual tortoises away from the project's construction site and intensively monitored them over 5 years (2012-2017). We monitored these individuals and tortoises located in the translocation release area (resident tortoises; n = 112) and control tortoises (n = 149) in a nearby location. We used our tortoise encounter data and known-fate survival models to estimate annual and cumulative survival. Translocated tortoises in each of 2 size classes (120-160 mm, >160 mm) did not survive at lower rates than resident and control tortoises over the study period. For models with different sets of biotic and abiotic covariates, annual and cumulative estimates of survival were always >0.87 and >0.56, respectively. Larger tortoises tended to have higher survival, but translocated tortoises were not differentially affected by the covariates used to model variation in survival. Based on these findings, our translocation design and study protocols could inform other translocation projects for desert species. Our case study highlights the benefits of combining rigorous scientific monitoring with well-designed, mitigation-driven management actions to reduce the negative effects of development on species of conservation concern.
(© 2019 Society for Conservation Biology.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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