Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Searching for an effective pre-release screening tool for translocations: can trap temperament predict behaviour and survival in the wild?

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Biodiversity and Conservation Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Individuals often respond to threatening situations in consistently different ways and these differences may predict later translocation success. Thus, the ability to easily identify these differences prior to translocation may assist in improving conservation outcomes. We asked whether burrowing bettongs (Bettongia lesueur), a marsupial species that has undergone significant decline since the introduction of exotic predators to Australia, responded in consistently different ways to capture in traps, and if so, whether this was related to anti-predator behaviour, ranging behaviour and survival following translocation. Behavioural responses of 40 bettongs were measured and included response to removal from traps (trap docility), latency to leave a trap or bag and escape behaviour upon release. We used flight initiation distance to measure escape behaviour, and distance moved from diurnal refuges during nocturnal foraging to measure ranging behaviour. Survival was measured through radiotracking after release. Behaviours scored during removal from a trap were consistent and repeatable, and formed a behavioural syndrome with anti-predator and ranging behaviour. Less docile bettongs foraged closer to refuges and had longer flight initiation distances. Less docile bettongs were also more likely to survive after release, although the sample size of mortalities was small. Our results suggest that behaviours scored during trapping could be a useful metric for pre-release screening in translocation programs to enhance the chances of individual survival post-release.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Atkins R, Blumstein DT, Moseby KE, West R, Hyatt M, Letnic M (2016) Deep evolutionary experience explains mammalian responses to predators. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 70(10):1755–1763

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Banks PB, Hume ID, Crowe O (1999) Behavioural, morphological and dietary response of rabbits to predation risk from foxes. Oikos 85:247–256

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bannister HL, Lynch CE, Moseby KE (2016) Predator swamping and supplementary feeding do not improve reintroduction success for a threatened Australian mammal, Bettongia lesueur. Aust Mammal 38(2):177–187

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bates D, Maechler M, Bolker B, Walker S (2014) lme4: Linear mixed-effects models using Eigen and S4. R Package Version 1(7):1–23

    Google Scholar 

  • Blumstein DT, Daniel JC (2005) The loss of anti-predator behaviour following isolation on islands. Proc R Soc Lond B 272(1573):1663–1668

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blumstein D, Holland BD, Daniel J (2006) Predator discrimination and ‘personality’in captive Vancouver Island marmots (Marmota vancouverensis). Anim Conserv 9(3):274–282

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonnot N, Verheyden H, Blanchard P, Cote J, Debeffe L, Cargnelutti B, Klein F, Hewison AM, Morellet N (2014) Interindividual variability in habitat use: evidence for a risk management syndrome in roe deer? Behav Ecol 26(1):105–114

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boon AK, Réale D, Boutin S (2008) Personality, habitat use, and their consequences for survival in North American red squirrels Tamiasciurus hudsonicus. Oikos 117(9):1321–1328

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boyer N, Réale D, Marmet J, Pisanu B, Chapuis JL (2010) Personality, space use and tick load in an introduced population of Siberian chipmunks Tamias sibiricus. J Anim Ecol 79(3):538–547

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bremner-Harrison S, Prodohl P, Elwood RW (2004) Behavioural trait assessment as a release criterion: boldness predicts early death in a reintroduction programme of captive-bred swift fox (Vulpes velox). Anim Conserv 7(3):313–320

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cooper WE, Blumstein DT (2015) Escaping from predators: an integrative view of escape decisions. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Cooper WE, Pyron RA, Garland T (2014) Island tameness: living on islands reduces flight initiation distance. Proc R Soc Lond B 281(1777):20133019

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crainiceanu CM, Ruppert D (2004) Likelihood ratio tests in linear mixed models with one variance component. J R Stat Soc 66(1):165–185

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dingemanse NJ, Both C, Van Noordwijk AJ, Rutten AL, Drent PJ (2003) Natal dispersal and personalities in great tits (Parus major). Proc R Soc Lond 270(1516):741–747

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dingemanse NJ, Kazem AJ, Réale D, Wright J (2010) Behavioural reaction norms: animal personality meets individual plasticity. Trends Ecol Evol 25(2):81–89

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fischer J, Lindenmayer DB (2000) An assessment of the published results of animal relocations. Biol Cons 96(1):1–11

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fucikova E, Drent PJ, Smits N, Van Oers K (2009) Handling stress as a measurement of personality in great tit nestlings (Parus major). Ethology 115(4):366–374

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haage M, Maran T, Bergvall UA, Elmhagen B, Angerbjörn A (2016) The influence of spatiotemporal conditions and personality on survival in reintroductions–evolutionary implications. Oecologia 183(1):45–56

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Kuznetsova A, Brockhoff PB, Christensen RHB (2017) lmerTest package: tests in linear mixed effects models. J Stat Softw 82(13):1–26. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v082.i13

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • May TM, Page MJ, Fleming PA (2016) Predicting survivors: animal temperament and translocation. Behav Ecol 27(4):969–977

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Monclús R, Anderson AM, Blumstein DT (2015) Do yellow-bellied marmots perceive enhanced predation risk when they are farther from safety? An experimental study. Ethology 121(9):831–839

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Montiglio P-O, Garant D, Pelletier F, Réale D (2012) Personality differences are related to long-term stress reactivity in a population of wild eastern chipmunks, Tamias striatus. Anim Behav 84(4):1071–1079

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moseby K, Read J, Paton D, Copley P, Hill B, Crisp H (2011) Predation determines the outcome of 10 reintroduction attempts in arid South Australia. Biol Conserv 144(12):2863–2872

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moseby KE, Blumstein DT, Letnic M (2016) Harnessing natural selection to tackle the problem of prey naïveté. Evol Appl 9(2):334–343

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nakagawa S, Schielzeth H (2010) Repeatability for Gaussian and non-Gaussian data: a practical guide for biologists. Biol Rev 85(4):935–956

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Petelle MB, McCoy DE, Alejandro V, Martin JG, Blumstein DT (2013) Development of boldness and docility in yellow-bellied marmots. Anim Behav 86(6):1147–1154

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raudenbush SW, Bryk AS (2002) Hierarchical linear models: applications and data analysis methods. Sage, Thousand Oaks

    Google Scholar 

  • Réale D, Gallant BY, Leblanc M, Festa-Bianchet M (2000) Consistency of temperament in bighorn ewes and correlates with behaviour and life history. Anim Behav 60(5):589–597

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Réale D, Reader SM, Sol D, McDougall PT, Dingemanse NJ (2007) Integrating animal temperament within ecology and evolution. Biol Rev 82(2):291–318

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Réale D, Martin J, Coltman D, Poissant J, Festa-Bianchet M (2009) Male personality, life-history strategies and reproductive success in a promiscuous mammal. J Evol Biol 22(8):1599–1607

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Richardson K, Ewen J, Brekke P, Doerr L, Parker K, Armstrong D (2016) Behaviour during handling predicts male natal dispersal distances in an establishing reintroduced hihi (Notiomystis cincta) population. Anim Conserv 20(2):135–143

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robley AJ, Short J, Bradley S (2001) Dietary overlap between the burrowing bettong (Bettongia lesueur) and the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) in semi-arid coastal Western Australia. Wildl Res 28(4):341–349

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Runyan AM, Blumstein DT (2004) Do individual differences influence flight initiation distance? J Wildl Manag 68(4):1124–1129

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Santos CD, Cramer JF, Pârâu LG, Miranda AC, Wikelski M, Dechmann DK (2015) Personality and morphological traits affect pigeon survival from raptor attacks. Sci Rep 5:15490

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Scheipl F, Greven S, Kuechenhoff H (2008) Size and power of tests for a zero random effect variance or polynomial regression in additive and linear mixed models. Comput Stat Data Anal 52(7):3283–3299

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Short J, Turner B (1993) The distribution and abundance of the burrowing bettong (Marsupialia: Macropoidea). Wildl Res 20(4):525–533

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Short J, Turner B (1999) Ecology of burrowing bettongs, Bettongia lesueur (Marsupialia: Potoroidae), on Dorre and Bernier Islands, Western Australia. Wildl Res 26(5):651–669

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Short J, Turner B (2000) Reintroduction of the burrowing bettong Bettongia lesueur (Marsupialia: Potoroidae) to mainland Australia. Biol Cons 96(2):185–196

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith BR, Blumstein DT (2008) Fitness consequences of personality: a meta-analysis. Behav Ecol 19(2):448–455

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith BR, Blumstein DT (2012) Structural consistency of behavioural syndromes: does predator training lead to multi-contextual behavioural change? Behaviour 149(2):187–213

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stoffel MA, Nakagawa S, Schielzeth H (2017) rptR: repeatability estimation and variance decomposition by generalized linear mixed-effects models. Methods Ecol Evol 8:1639–1644. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.12797

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Dyck S, Strahan R (2008) The mammals of Australia. New Holland Pub Pty Limited, Holland

    Google Scholar 

  • Watters JV, Meehan CL (2007) Different strokes: can managing behavioral types increase post-release success? Appl Anim Behav Sci 102(3):364–379

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Woinarski J, Burbidge A, Harrison P (2014) Action plan for Australian mammals 2012. CSIRO, Dickson

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wolf M, Weissing FJ (2012) Animal personalities: consequences for ecology and evolution. Trends Ecol Evol 27(8):452–461

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wolf CM, Griffith B, Reed C, Temple SA (1996) Avian and mammalian translocations: update and reanalysis of 1987 survey data. Conserv Biol 10(4):1142–1154

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Woltman H, Feldstain A, MacKay JC, Rocchi M (2012) An introduction to hierarchical linear modeling. Tutor Quant Methods Psychol 8(1):52–69

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richards J, Morris K, Burbidge A (2008) Bettongia lesueur. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2008: e.T2784A9480530. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2008.RLTS.T2784A9480530.en. Accessed 07 Oct 2018

Download references

Acknowledgements

This study was conducted at Arid Recovery, a private conservation organisation supported by BHP Billiton, The University of Adelaide, South Australian Department of Environment and the local community. Our work was supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC Linkage Grant: LP 130100173) and Arid Recovery. We are indebted to D. Williams, C. Lynch, Z. Richardson and R. Pedler for assistance in the field. Ethics approval was obtained from the South Australian Wildlife Ethics Committee, permit no. 1/2014M2. We thank two anonymous reviewers and the editor for astute comments that helped to improve the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Ecosystem Science, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia

    R. S. West, M. Letnic & K. E. Moseby

  2. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, 621 Young Drive South, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1606, USA

    D. T. Blumstein

  3. Arid Recovery Ltd., P.O. Box 147, Roxby Downs, SA, 5725, Australia

    K. E. Moseby

Authors
  1. R. S. West
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. D. T. Blumstein
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. M. Letnic
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. K. E. Moseby
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to R. S. West.

Additional information

Communicated by Adeline Loyau.

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

West, R.S., Blumstein, D.T., Letnic, M. et al. Searching for an effective pre-release screening tool for translocations: can trap temperament predict behaviour and survival in the wild?. Biodivers Conserv 28, 229–243 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-018-1649-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-018-1649-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation