KEVIN A. PARKER
The Ecology and Conservation Group, Institute of Natural Resources, Massey University, Private Bag 102904, North Shore Mail Centre, Auckland, New Zealand.
The World Conservation Union (1987) defines a translocation as a release of animals with the intention of establishing, re-establishing or augmenting an existing population. Despite frequent use as a tool for the management of threatened and endangered wildlife, the full benefits of translocations often go unrealised. Here I demonstrate how translocations can achieve outputs for conservation management, conservation science and the wider human community, using North Island saddleback or tieke (Philesturnus rufusater) as an illustrative example. From a conservation management perspective North Island saddleback have been salvaged from a relic population of <500 birds on 484 ha Hen Island to a metapopulation of approximately 6000 birds on 13 offshore islands and at two mainland New Zealand sites. These translocations have reduced the risk of global extinction for this species and helped restore the ecosystems involved. All of these translocations have occurred in the last 42 years from known source populations and with known numbers of birds released. The resulting replicated serial population bottlenecks provide numerous scientific opportunities for conservation and biological research. While the first saddleback translocations were to reserves closed to the public, subsequent translocations have been to open reserves providing the wider human community with an opportunity to see, and be actively involved, in the management of a threatened endemic species. This has raised the profile of both North Island saddleback and other species, and has provided wider community conservation benefits. These three outputs illustrate the value of translocations for resource management, conservation science and for increasing community interest, participation and investment in biological conservation.
This article was published in June 2008, in Restoration Ecology 16: 204-209.
This abstract taken from: Ecological Society newsletter 125, July 2008
