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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: [email protected]
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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

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