Large-scale Translocation Strategies for Reintroducing Red-cockaded Woodpeckers

Tramlocation of’ wild birds is a potential conservation stl-ate&y lix the cndartgerc~i red-cock;rded woodpecker (Picoi&s bor~uli,~), We developed and rcstcd 8 larg~~-sc;& tramslocation stratchy models for a regional redcockaded woodpeckrr rcintrodurtion program. The purpose of the reintroduction program is to increase tbc number of red-cockaded woodpeckers by moving subadult birds liom large populations to smaller populations that arc unlikely to incrcasc on their own. A m;?jor problem in implcmcnting the progmm is dctrrmining where birds will be moved because the larger donor populations cxlnot supply enough birds for all small recipient populations each year. 0ur goals were to develop tramlocation slmregies :md rnodcl which ones would (1) result in the most groups of’ woodpeckers in a given amount of time, (2) most quickly reach the goal of at Icast 30 groups of woodpeckers in Avery population. and (3) result in the Cewest population extinctions. We developed lump-smn strategies that moved all the tramlocated birds to 1 population each yur, ;md pxtitioning stmtegies that divided the birds among sc~cral populations every year. In our simnlatiorrs, the lump-sum strategies resulted in the most woodpeckers for the overall program and the highest number of’ population extinctions. Partitioning strategies had the lowest population extinction rate but produced the lowest Irate oi‘ increase in the number of woodpecker groups. l‘he modvl that partitioned birds to the 6 largest recipient populations with fewer than 30 groups was the best overall strategy for meeting our goals bec;mse it rcachrd 30 groups in cvcry population the &test, produced many birds, and had only il modcratc population extinction rate. We suggest that adhering to a single stratrhy that meets the goals ol‘ the participants should simplify the program and t~cduce its cost. JOURNAL OF WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT 66(1):212-221 James (1995) reported that populations of redon et al. (1991) demonstrated that placement of cockaded woodpeckers (Picoi&s h-~&s) were artificial cavities in vacant but suitable habitat in declining throughout most of their range during the vicinity of existing red-cockaded woodpecker the 1980s. Hardwood midstory encroachment groups could induce the formation of new social around cavity trees causing cluster abandonment groups. However, the ability LO provide adequate (Conner and Rudolph 1989), habitat tiagmentanumbers of cavities artificially did 110~ solve the tion that increased the effects of demographic dispersal-related problems that existed in most isolation (Conner and Rudolph 1991, Rudolph small populations (Saenz et al. 2001). and Conner 1994)) a paucity of potential cavity Reintroduction programs to repopulate hislortrees (Costa and Escano 1989), and net loss of icai portions of a species range or to bolster existsuirdble cavities available for nest ing have been ing small populations have been widely used in the primary causes of population decline in other species, but often with poor results (GrifTexas (Conner and Rudolph 1995) and throughlith c( al. 1989, Wolf et al. 1996). I)eFazio et al. out the South. ( 1987), however, successf~llly augmented single Artificial cavities were developed durillg the malt r&cockaded woodpeckers with s&adult late 1980s to provide suitable cavities fi)r groups of ti~malcs to fill breeding vacancies. The successfill woodpeckers with insufficient ca\itics li)r nc’s~itlg rcintroductitrll oi. p a i r s o f w o o d p e c k e r s i n t o and roosting (Copeyon 1990, Xllcn I99 I ). (Iop~yutloccttpictl sitcls soon li)llowrd (Rudolph et al. 1992, (I;u.r-ic c( ;tl. 1999). Furled by early S~ICCCSS, ;I rctl-c-ockatled w o o d p e c k e r rcintrctdllction ’ 8-mail: c_saert/ti~~~lit;rr~.sfilsll.~~l~~ caffort has been u~ldcrwav in Texas, Louisiana,