How to plan reintroductions of long-lived birds.

Abstract

Reintroductions have been increasingly used for species restoration and it seems that this conservation tool is going to be more used in the future. Nevertheless, there is not a clear consensus about the better procedure for that, consequently a better knowledge of how to optimize this kind of management is needed. Here we examined the dynamics of released long-lived bird populations (lesser kestrel, Falco naumanni, Bonelli's eagle Aquila fasciata, and bearded vulture Gypaetus barbatus) in object-oriented simulated reintroduction programs. To do that, number of young per year and number of years of released necessary to achieve a successful reintroduced population were calculated. We define a successful reintroduction as one in which when the probability of extinction during two times the maximum live-span period for the species (20, 50, and 64 years respectively) was less than 0.001 (P<0.001) and they showed a positive trend in population size (r>0.00). Results showed that a similar total number of young (mean 98.33±5.26) must be released in all the species in all the scenarios in order to get a successful reintroduction. Consequently, as more young per year are released the new population is going to be larger at the end of the simulations, the lesser the negative effects in the donor population and the lowest the total budget needed will be.