This GitHub repository accompanies our paper 'Social group membership with residents mediates reinforcement outcomes for a translocated bird' (under review).

Here you can find:

• The data generated and analysed in the study (please note very large files such as raw tracking data are not uploaded to GitHub but are available upon reasonable request)
• An R markdown script containing the analyses and figure creation
• Figures from the publication along with unpublished additional plots and maps

Please direct any questions to the corresponding author at shoshana.rapley@anu.edu.au

Abstract:

Conservation translocations are increasingly used to restore lost or declining populations, but have suffered from low rates of success. Animals released as part of reintroduction programmes are theorised expected to benefit from social interactions with conspecifics from earlier releases, due to habitat cues and opportunities for social learning, but empirical evidence is lacking. Using high-resolution GPS tracking across a population of bush stone-curlews (Burhinus grallarius), we investigated whether newly released animals (‘reinforcers’) interacted with previously released conspecifics (‘residents’), and whether these interactions impacted influenced post-release establishment. We found pPost-release outcomes for reinforcers varied depending on whether they sharedwith social group membership with residents. Half the reinforcers formed social group co-membership with the residentsintegrated into the residents’ social group and the other half did not. Reinforcers in the residents’ social group had greater release- site fidelity and faster roosting area establishment. than did those that were not associated with residents. We found a reciprocal anchoring effect where theReciprocally, residents were also attracted to the reinforcers, which enhanced resident roost- site fidelity. We recommend the development of developing translocation tactics that leverage social relationships to improve post-release outcomes. This study contributes to the growing body of research at the intersection of behavioural ecology and conservation management to improve reintroduction success. These findings underscore the need to assess reinforcement outcomes at the population level, accounting for social dynamics between release cohorts.

Citation:

To come