Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.
PLoS One. 2012;7(12):e50612. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0050612. Epub 2012 Dec 5.
It is essential to choose suitable habitat when reintroducing a species into its former range. Habitat quality may influence an individual's dispersal decisions and also ultimately where they choose to settle. We examined whether variation in habitat quality (quantified by the level of ground vegetation cover and the installation of nest boxes) influenced the movement, habitat choice and survival of a reintroduced bird species. We experimentally reintroduced seven social groups (43 individuals) of the brown treecreeper (Climacteris picumnus) into two nature reserves in south-eastern Australia. We radio-tracked 18 brown treecreepers from release in November 2009 until February 2010. We observed extensive movements by individuals irrespective of the release environment or an individual's gender. This indicated that individuals were capable of dispersing and actively selecting optimum habitat. This may alleviate pressure on wildlife planners to accurately select the most optimum release sites, so long as the species' requirements are met. There was significant variation in movement between social groups, suggesting that social factors may be a more important influence on movement than habitat characteristics. We found a significant effect of ground vegetation cover on the likelihood of settlement by social groups, with high rates of settlement and survival in dry forests, rather than woodland (where the species typically resides), which has implications for the success of woodland restoration. However, overall the effects of variation in habitat quality were not as strong as we had expected, and resulted in some unpredicted effects such as low survival and settlement in woodland areas with medium levels of ground vegetation cover. The extensive movement by individuals and unforeseen effects of habitat characteristics make it difficult to predict the outcome of reintroductions, the movement behaviour and habitat selection of reintroduced individuals, particularly when based on current knowledge of a species' ecology.
当将一个物种重新引入其先前的范围时，选择合适的栖息地至关重要。栖息地质量可能会影响个体的扩散决策，并最终影响它们选择定居的地点。我们研究了栖息地质量（通过地面植被覆盖水平和巢箱安装来量化）的变化是否会影响重新引入的鸟类物种的运动、栖息地选择和生存。我们在澳大利亚东南部的两个自然保护区中实验性地重新引入了七群（43 只个体）棕胸佛法僧（Climacteris picumnus）。我们从 2009 年 11 月到 2010 年 2 月对 18 只棕胸佛法僧进行了无线电跟踪。我们观察到个体进行了广泛的运动，无论释放环境或个体的性别如何。这表明个体有能力扩散并积极选择最佳栖息地。这可能会减轻野生动物规划者准确选择最佳释放地点的压力，只要满足物种的要求即可。社会群体之间的运动存在显著差异，这表明社会因素可能比栖息地特征对运动更重要。我们发现地面植被覆盖对社会群体定居的可能性有显著影响，而高定居率和存活率则在干旱森林中，而不是在林地（该物种通常居住的地方）中，这对林地恢复的成功有影响。然而，总体而言，栖息地质量变化的影响并不像我们预期的那样强烈，并且导致了一些意想不到的影响，例如在地面植被覆盖水平中等的林地地区存活率和定居率较低。个体的广泛运动和栖息地特征的不可预测的影响使得很难预测重新引入的结果、重新引入个体的运动行为和栖息地选择，特别是当基于对物种生态学的当前了解时。
