Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T15:26:18.936Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Survival rates and reproductive ecology of a reintroduced population of the Asian Crested Ibis Nipponia nippon in Shaanxi Qianhu National Wetland Park, China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 December 2020

MIN LI Open the ORCID record for MIN LI [Opens in a new window] ,
XINPING YE ,
RONG DONG ,
XUEJING ZHANG ,
HU ZHANG  and
XIAOPING YU
MIN LI
Affiliation:
College of Life Sciences, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, China.
XINPING YE
Affiliation:
College of Life Sciences, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, China.
RONG DONG
Affiliation:
College of Life Sciences, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, China.
XUEJING ZHANG
Affiliation:
College of Life Sciences, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, China.
HU ZHANG
Affiliation:
Qianhu Lake National Wetland Park, Qianyang County, Bao’ji, China.
XIAOPING YU*
Affiliation:
College of Life Sciences, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, China.
*
*Author for correspondence; e-mail: yuxp64@163.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Reintroductions aim to re-establish a viable population within the indigenous range of living organisms, especially of threatened species. The population of the Asian Crested Ibis Nipponia nippon, a well-known ‘Endangered’ bird species, has increased over 100 times since wild populations were rediscovered in 1981, and several reintroduction projects were subsequently carried out in its former range. An experimental release of the Asian Crested Ibis was conducted in Qianhu National Wetland Park located in the southern part of the Loess Plateau, China. It is vitally important to monitor released birds (at least their survival and breeding), to inform subsequent releases in other suitable sites. During extensive post-release monitoring, data on capture-recapture and reproductive status were obtained using banding, radiotelemetry, and field observations. Using the Cormack-Jolly-Seber (C-J-S) model, the average annual survival rates were estimated to be 0.569 (95% CI: 0.353–0.762) for released individuals and 0.643 (95% CI: 0.038–0.987) for all individuals. From 2014 to 2018, a total of 14 breeding pairs produced 28 eggs and 10 fledglings with successful reproduction of the second generation. The mean clutch size was 2.07 ± 0.25 (n = 29), and the breeding success was 34.5%. Predation and poor habitat quality have been shown to be the main factors affecting the reintroduced population at establishment stage. Some management suggestions at the metapopulation and ecosystem levels, including further release, predator control and habitat improvement, have been proposed.

Keywords

Crested ibisNipponia nipponreintroduced populationmeta-populationsurvival ratereproductive success
Type
Research Article
Information
Bird Conservation International , Volume 31 , Issue 3 , September 2021 , pp. 410 - 419
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of BirdLife International

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alisauskas, R. T. and Lindberg, M. S. (2002) Effects of neckbands on survival and fidelity of white-fronted and Canada geese captured as non-breeding adults. J. Appl. Statist. 29: 521–537.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, D. R., Burnham, K. P. and Thompson, W. L. (2000) Null Hypothesis Testing: Problems, Prevalence, and an Alternative. J. Wildl. Manage. 64: 912–923.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Armstrong, D. P. and Ewen, J. G. (2002) Dynamics and viability of a New Zealand Robin population reintroduced to regenerating fragmented habitat. Conserv. Biol. 16: 1074–1085.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Armstrong, D. P. and Reynolds, M. H. (2012) Modelling reintroduced populations: the state of the art and future directions. Pp: 528 in Ewen, J. G., Armstrong, D. P., Parker, K. A. and Seddon, P. J., eds. Reintroduction biology: Integrating science and management. Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Armstrong, D. P. and Seddon, P. J. (2007) Directions in reintroduction biology. Trends Ecol. Evol. 23: 20–25.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Armstrong, D. P., Castro, I., Alley, J. C., Feenstra, B. and Perrott, J. K. (1999) Mortality and behaviour of hihi, an endangered New Zealand honeyeater, in the establishment phase following translocation. Biol. Conserv. 89: 329–339.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beck, B. B. (2001) A vision for reintroduction. Communiqué September: 20–21. Silver Spring, Maryland, USA: American Zoo and Aquarium Association.Google Scholar
Brown, O. J. F. (2006) Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) extinction on the Australian mainland in the mid-Holocene: multicausality and ENSO intensification. Alcheringa: An Australasian J. Palaeontol. 30: 49–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buckland, S. T., Burnham, K. P. and Augustin, N. H. (1997) Model selection: An integral part of inference. Biometrics 53: 603–618.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burnham, K. P. and Anderson, D. R. (1998) Model selection and inference - a practical information - theoretic approach. New York, USA: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burnham, K. P. and Anderson, D. R. (2002) Model selection and multimodel inference. New York, USA: Springer.Google Scholar
Cao, Y. H., Yu, X. P. and Zhai, T. Q. (1995) The harm made by snakes to the Crested Ibis, Nipponia nippon, in breeding season. J. Northwest Univ. 25: 721–724. (In Chinese).Google Scholar
Dickens, M. J., Delehanty, D. J. and Romero, L. M. (2010) Stress: an inevitable component of animal translocation. Biol. Conserv. 143: 1329–1341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ding, C. Q. (2004) Research on the crested ibis. Shanghai, China: Shanghai Press of Science and Education. (In Chinese).Google Scholar
Dong, R., Ye, X. P., Zhong, L., Li, X., Li, M., Wang, H. Q. et al. (2018) Effects of breeding success, age and sex on breeding dispersal of a reintroduced population of the Crested Ibis (Nipponia nippon) in Ningshan County, China. Avian Res. published online 1 December 2018.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glen, A. S., Pech, R. P. and Byrom, A. E. (2013) Connectivity and invasive species management: towards an integrated landscape approach. Biol. Invasions 15: 2127–2138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huang, Z. X., Zhu, J. G., Wang, K., Cai, D. J. and Huang, T. (2016) Distribution and Reproduction of the reintroduced Crested Ibis in Dongzhai, Henan. Bull. Biol. 10: 53–56. (In Chinese).Google Scholar
Huo, Z. P., Guo, J. F., Li, X. and Yu, X. P. (2014) Post-fledging dispersal and habitat use of a reintroduced population of the Crested Ibis (Nipponia nippon). Avian Res. 5: 7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
IUCN (1998) Guidelines for reintroductions. Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK: World Conservation Union/SSC Re-introduction Specialist Group.Google Scholar
IUCN/SSC (2013) Guidelines for reintroductions and other conservation translocations. Version 1.0. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN Species Survival Commission.Google Scholar
Kenward, R. E., Clarke, R. T., Hodder, K. H. and Walls, S. S. (2001) Density and linkage estimators of home range: Nearest-neighbor clustering defines multinuclear cores. Ecology 82: 1905–1920.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lebreton, J. D., Burnham, K. P., Clobert, J. and Anderson, D. R. (1992) Modeling survival and testing biological hypotheses using marked animals: a unified approach with case studies. Ecol. Monogr. 62: 67118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, X., Huo, Z. P. and Yu, X. P. (2013) Cause of death of a reintroduced population of the Crested Ibis of in Ningshan, Shaanxi. Chi. J. Zool. 48: 701–706. (In Chinese).Google Scholar
Li, Y. F., Ye, X. P., Wang, M., Li, X., Dong, R., Huo, Z. P. et al. (2018) Survival rates of a reintroduced population of the Crested Ibis Nipponia nippon in Ningshan County (Shaanxi, China). Bird Conserv. Internat.l 28: 145–156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macdonald, D. W. and Johnson, D. D. P. (2001) Dispersal in theory and practice: consequences for conservation biology. Pp: 358–372 in Clobert, J., Danchin, E., Dhondt, A. A. and Nichols, J. D., eds. Dispersal. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Nagata, H. and Yamagish, S. (2013) Re-introduction of crested ibis on Sado Island, Japan. Pp: 58−62 in Soorae, P. S., ed. Global reintroduction perspectives: Further case studies around the globe. Abu Dhabi, UAE: IUCN/SSC Re-introduction Specialist Group and Environment Agency, Abu Dhabi.Google Scholar
Robert, A., Colas, B., Guigon, I., Kerbiriou, C., Mihou, J. B., SaintJalme, M. et al. (2015) Defining reintroduction success using IUCN criteria for threatened species: a demographic assessment. Anim. Conserv. 18: 397–406.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sarrazin, F. and Legendre, S. (2010) Demographic approach to releasing adults versus young in reintroductions. Conserv. Biol. 14: 488–500.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schaub, M., Ullrich, B., Knotzsch, G., Albrecht, P. and Meisser, C. (2010) Local population dynamics and the impact of scale and isolation: A study on different Little Owl populations. Oikos 115: 389–400.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schaub, M., Zink, R., Beissmann, H., Sarrazin, F. and Arlettaz, R. (2009) When to end releases in reintroduction programmes: demographic rates and population viability analysis of bearded vultures in the Alps. J. Appl. Ecol. 46: 92–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, J. M. and Carpenter, J. W. (1987) Release of captive-reared or translocated endangered birds: What do we need to know? The Auk 104: 544–545.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seddon, P. J. (1999) Persistence without intervention: assessing success in wildlife re-introductions. Trends Ecol. Evol. 14: 503.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seddon, P. J., Armstrong, D. P. and Maloney, R. F. (2007) Developing the science of reintroduction biology. Conserv. Biol. 21: 303–312.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shao, L. X., He, Y. F. and Lin, Y. (2016) The reintroduction project of Crested Ibis (>200) have made breakthroughs in Deqing, Zhejiang province. Zhejiang Forestry 9: 30–31. (In Chinese).Google Scholar
Sheean, V. A., Manning, A. D. and Lindenmayer, D. B. (2012) An assessment of scientific approaches towards species relocations in Australia. Austral Ecol. 37: 204–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shi, D. C. and Cao, Y. H. (2001) The Crested Ibis in China. Beijing: China Forestry Publishing House. (In Chinese).Google Scholar
Tavecchia, G., Viedma, C., Martinez-Abrain, A., Bartolome, M., Gomez, J. A. and Oro, D. (2009) Maximizing re-introduction success: assessing the immediate cost of release in a threatened waterfowl. Biol. Conserv. 142: 3005–3012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, G., Canessa, S., Clarke, R. H., Ingwersen, D., Armstrong, D. P., Seddon, P. J. et al. (2017) Is reintroduction biology an effective applied science? Trends Ecol. Evol. 32: 873.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wang, M., Ye, X. P., Li, Y. F., Huo, Z. P., Li, X. and Yu, X. P. (2017) On the sustainability of a reintroduced of a Crested Ibis population in Qinling Mountains, Shaanxi, Central China. Restoration Ecol. 25: 261–268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, H. Q. (2016) Reproduction of reintroduced Nipponia nippon in Tongchuan, Shaanxi Province. Sichuan J. Zool. (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Xi, Y. M., Lu, B. Z., Geng, Z. Z., Zhai, T. Q. and Zhang, Y. M. (1997) Cure of the Crested Ibis. Chinese Wildl. 18: 28–30. (In Chinese).Google Scholar
Yu, X. P., Chang, X. Y., Li, X., Chen, W. G. and Shi, L. (2009) Return of the Crested Ibis Nipponia nippon: a reintroduction programme in Shaanxi province, China. BirdingASIA 11: 80–82.Google Scholar
Yu, X. P., Li, X. and Huo, Z. P. (2015) Breeding ecology and success of a reintroduced population of the endangered Crested Ibis Nipponia nippon . Bird Conserv. Internatn. 25: 207–219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yu, X. P., Liu, N. F., Xi, Y. M. and Lu, B. Z. (2006) Reproductive success of the Crested Ibis Nipponia nippon . Bird Conserv. Internatn. 16: 325–343.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, Y. M., Lu, B. Z., Zhai, T. Q., Xi, Y. M. and Wang, Y. J. (2000) Analysis on the death reason and conservation measures of Crested Ibis. Pp:117–122 in Proceedings of International Workshop on the Crested Ibis Conservation. Beijing, China: China Forestry Publishing House. (In Chinese).Google Scholar