How Does Stress Affect Reintroduction and Translocation Attempts?

Open Access
- Author:
- Harkless, Shelby
- Area of Honors:
- Wildlife and Fisheries Science
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Jason C Keagy, Thesis Supervisor
Margaret Brittingham, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- reintroduction
translocation
stress
glucocorticoids
targeted review
recommendations
wildlife - Abstract:
- Reintroductions and translocations are important tools for increasing wild populations of animals under threat. The most important aspect of these attempts are survival and successful reproduction of the released animals. Stress is known to impact animal survival and reproduction, however until recently the impacts of stress on a reintroduction or translocation attempt were not well studied. While stress can be beneficial in certain circumstances, the negative effects of stress may have strong impacts on the success or failure of these attempts to establish new breeding populations. The trapping of wild animals, handling process, and type of release used in a study have been found to cause significant stress in wildlife, sometimes resulting in failure of the reintroduction or translocation. Variables post-release, such as predation, disease, and anthropogenic disturbance, have also been found to cause stress in wildlife. In this thesis, I develop a “stress-focused” framework for making decisions about reintroduction or translocation techniques. I outline physiological and behavioral markers of stress, conduct a targeted review of the literature on how stress affects success of translocation or reintroduction attempts, and make recommendations for limiting negative stress in future reintroductions and translocations.