Jobson, B;
Wolter, K;
Jordan, L;
Monadjem, A;
Rowcliffe, M;
(2020)
Home range and habitat selection of captive-bred and rehabilitated cape vultures Gyps coprotheres in southern Africa.
Oryx
10.1017/S0030605319000814.
(In press).
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Abstract
Following the continual decline of Cape vultures (Gyps coprotheres) over the last 40 years, captive breeding and rehabilitation programmes have been set up to supplement populations across southern Africa. This study aims to determine the effectiveness of these conservation interventions by highlighting the capabilities and behavioural similarities between captive-bred and rehabilitated vultures after release. Our analysis incorporated 253,671 GPS tracking points from 20 captive-bred and 13 rehabilitated birds. Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) was used to analyse the extent of home ranges. Findings suggest that home range extent did not differ significantly between captive-bred and rehabilitated birds. The location of home range differed as captive-bred birds showed a higher level of site fidelity and remained close to their release site, whereas rehabilitated birds dispersed more widely across their native range. By remaining close to their release site within protected areas, captive-bred birds maintained a significantly higher percentage of their GPS locations within protected areas than rehabilitated birds. Despite showing site fidelity, captive-bred birds demonstrated innate capabilities for natural foraging behaviours and the same ‘second order’ habitat selection as rehabilitated individuals. These findings suggest that captive breeding could provide localised restoration benefits for declining colonies. Future long-term studies should seek to analyse survivorship and identify breeding behaviour of these captive-bred birds once they reach sexual maturity.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Home range and habitat selection of captive-bred and rehabilitated cape vultures Gyps coprotheres in southern Africa |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1017/S0030605319000814 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605319000814 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Keywords: | Dispersal, Endangered, Kernel Density, Protected Areas, Spatial Ecology |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Genetics, Evolution and Environment |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10076951 |
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