University of Bath PHD Reintroduction and Conservation of the Great Bustard Otis tarda Burnside, John Award date: 2013 Awarding institution: University of Bath Link to publication Alternative formats If you require this document in an alternative format, please contact: [email protected] General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 07. Oct. 2021 Reintroduction and Conservation of the Great Bustard Otis tarda Robert John Burnside A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Bath Department of Biology and Biochemistry September 2012 COPYRIGHT Attention is drawn to the fact that copyright of this thesis rests with its author. A copy of this thesis has been supplied on the condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and they must not copy it or use material from it except as permitted by law or with the consent of the author. This thesis may not be consulted, photocopied or lent to other libraries without the permission of the author for one (1) year from the date of acceptance of the thesis. 1 Image 1: Female Red 28 flying above the release site on Salisbury Plain. This image won 1st prize in the Images of Research competition 2011 at the University of Bath. Photograph by John Burnside. 2 Summary of Contents Acknowledgements 4 Summary 6 Chapter 1: Introduction 8 - 26 Chapter 2: The UK great bustard Otis tarda reintroduction trial: a 5-year 28 - 38 progress report. Oryx Chapter 3: Refining reintroduction release methods: modelling post-release 40 - 61 survival of captive-reared Great Bustards. Manuscript Chapter 4: Post-release movements of captive-reared Great Bustards. 63 - 81 Manuscript Chapter 5: Conspecific attraction in a threatened lekking species: the effects 83 - 104 of disturbance, habitat and social cues on display site attendance in the great bustard. Bird Conservation International Chapter 6: Conclusions and future directions 106 - 122 Appendix 1: Booming bustard: characterisation of sonate drum sounds 124 - 130 during mating displays of the Great Bustard (Otis tarda) Appendix 2: Great Bustard Otis tarda survey results from the Eastern Volga 132 - 150 population, Russian Federation, from 2005 - 2009 and 2009 field work report Appendix 3: A review of recent research the Great Bustard (Otis tarda) 151 - 172 ecology and conservation 3 Acknowledgements Although science sometimes seems like an introverted and individualistic pursuit, it would actually not be possible without the help and collaboration of a large number of people. This is especially true for collaboration in data collection, ideas and critic of manuscripts and I would like to thank my collaborators; Zsolt Végvári, Sandor Konyhás, Gábor Kovács, Al Dawes, Ian Carter, Paul Goriup, Leigh Lock, Kate Ashbrook, Dick James, David Waters and Tamás Székely. The research was supported by a University of Bath competitive studentship. I have to pay thanks to my three supervisors, Tamás Székely, Dick James and David Waters (Director of Great Bustard Group). I would not have had the opportunity to do this PhD without the support and confidence of Tamás Székely. I’d also like to thank Dick James for his balanced input and particularly David Waters for his kindness and the occasionally reminder that there is more to conservation than science. Additionally, I have to thank technical staff at the University of Bath for their support, Helen Parker for looking after finances and Martin White for helping get a hold of equipment. I carried out fieldwork in the UK, Russia and Hungary and for that I have to thank the Great Bustard Group and Hawk Conservancy for access to past and present data on the UK project and particularly Al Dawes for all his help the research. At the Bustard Group, I would like to thank, Lynn, Hannah, Karen Waters, David Waters, John Chitty, the many volunteers and Mandy for providing a strange home away from home. The reintroduction consultative committee, since dissolved, was also a stimulating environment and I would like to thank Ian Carter from Natural England and from the RSPB, Leigh Lock and Tracé Williams for their support and James Ferguson-Lees from Wiltshire Ornithological Society for his insightful feedback. I have to recognise Dr Anatoli Khrustov, Director of the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Evolution and Ecological Problems (Saratov Branch), Russian National Academy of Science for his help and support during fieldwork in Russia and also Tatiana Pereverzina for allowing me to get an insight into great bustard captive-rearing. Additional thanks to Anastasia, Oleg, Valodia, Valodia Jnr and Valodia’s wife for their hospitality in Russia. 4 I am very grateful to the Hortobágy National Park authorities for granting me access the park during field trips and especially to Zsolt Végvári and Sandor Konyhás for their help in granting access to data and further data collection. Overall, I have to thank the people of the Biodiversity Lab, University of Bath, for their support and how they enriched life all round. They include Richard Young, Matthew Wills, Mark O’Connell, René van Dijk, Gabriel Garcia Peña, Freya Harrison, Anne O’Connor, Ross Mounce, Sylvain Gerber, Martin Hughes, Kate Ashbrook and Oliver Kruger (for the short time he was there). I owe special gratitude to Peter Long, Fiona Burns, James St Clair, Araceli Argüelles Ticó and Jorge Parra for all things GIS, grounded conservation perspective, statistics, as well as lashings of realism and fun. I would also like to mention Juan Carlos Alonso from the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales and Rhys Green (RSPB) and Nigel Collar (Birdlife International) for their input and feedback. Many thanks to Prof. Bill Sutherland and Dr Mike Mogie for prompt arrangement of the viva and assessing my PhD. Lastly, thanks to my family for their unending support during the PhD. Surely without their reassurance and the inspiration of my parents I would not have reached this stage. And not forgetting Oui Oui, merci pour son soutien et c'était merveilleux de marcher sur ce chemin avec elle. 5 Summary Conservation reintroduction aims to establish an organism into an area from where it has disappeared or was extirpated. Monitoring is essential to identify the factors that underpin successful establishment and persistence of a self-sustaining population. The Great Bustard (Otis tarda) is globally threatened and became extinct as a breeding species in the United Kingdom (UK) in 1832. Trial releases began in 2004 to reintroduce the Great Bustard to the UK based on the release of captive-reared chicks transported from a source population in Russia. The aim of this research was to investigate the factors influencing the establishment of a founder population of Great Bustards in the UK. In Chapter 1, I set the context of the reintroduction science and management in the world today and explore the issues surrounding it. Chapter 2 sets the baseline by which to measure the Great Bustard reintroduction project using the first five years of releases (2004 – 2008). Estimating vital rates and modelling population growth, I show that low recruitment to the founder population is a limitation for establishment. Chapters 3 and 4 investigate post-release survival and dispersal, both important variables in population establishment. By modelling individual post-release survival I show that earlier date of release can improve survival and could be used to improve recruitment. Conversely, post-release dispersal had mixed implication for the management of the reintroduced population. Surviving Great Bustards incorporated the release site into their annual range and as their breeding site. However, the birds had traversed large areas reducing our ability to monitor and control the environment of individuals. In Chapter 5, the research focus moves from the reintroduction project to an examination of the impact of disturbance and conspecific attraction (presence of conspecifics positively influences the movement of individuals) in habitat selection in a small extant population of Great Bustards. I show that the spatial distribution of display sites is influenced by anthropogenic disturbance; however, the number of males attending the display sites is influenced by the abundance of female conspecifics. The management implications of this result are that the attraction to conspecifics is an important factor in habitat selection. Finally, in Chapter 6, I discuss project limitations, potential interventions and identify future areas of research. 6 Image 2. Male Great Bustard patrolling a lek in Saratov, Russian Federation.. Photograph by John Burnside. 7 Chapter 1: Introduction Robert J. Burnside 8 Conservation Science: Reintroduction - Restoring Biodiversity and Natural Heritage There is a growing urgency to respond to the global loss of biodiversity (Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020). With increasing conservation efforts there have been concomitant calls for conservation action to be based on evidence (Sutherland et al. 2004). Even though extinction is an everyday biological process which on geological timescales is matched by speciation, the current rate of extinction is higher than the background rate verging on a sixth mass extinction (Barnosky et al. 2011). It is estimated that one quarter of all vertebrates could become extinct in the next century (Baillie et al.