INTERNATIONAL WATERFOWL AND WETLANDS RESEARCH BUREAU/ INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR BIRD PRESERVATION/ IUCN -- THE WORLD CONSERVATION UNION SPECIALIST GROUP ON STORKS, IBISES AND SPOONBILLS NEWSLETTER Volume 5, Number 1/2 November, 1992 LETTER FROM THE CO-CHAIRS improve management of small populations of endangered species. There is a great deal of exciting activity and new involvement within SIS. In April, Koen attended Initially, Michael Soull! and others began the Waldrapp Ibis Conservation meeting in Rabat, using mathematical models to examine the vulner­ Morocco (page 8). This was a productive meeting. abilities of small, threatened populations and to The increased interest and cooperation will lead to a contribute to their management (See references more unified and effective conservation effort. We below). More recently, the IUCN/SSC Captive hope that similar cooperative efforts will be generated Breeding Specialist Group has developed one for other species. aspect of the use of models. Special (PVA) meetings are held to model individual endangered In July, Malcolm attended a workshop for the species (e.g., the recent PVA meeting on the conservation of storks and cranes in the Amur River Waldrapp Ibis in Rabat). At these meetings a Basin (page 9). The meeting was well attended by single computer model is used: Vortex which was Russians, Chinese, Japanese, Koreans as well as written by Robert Lacy of the Brookfield Zoo. conservationists from Hong Kong and the United States. One working group dealt with the Oriental Because it is commonly used, the term White Stork Ciconia boyciana. We discussed and PVA has come to mean different things to differ­ summarized the conservation needs of the species. ent people. To some it refers to the results of a The cooperation generated at the meeting will lead to PVA meeting. For some people, the crux of these greater effectiveness in our efforts to preserve this meetings are the results of computer programs, species. but for others the crux is the gathering of key people and the focus of their efforts to identify As we were preparing this newsletter, we conservation problems of the endangered species. received an urgent request for aid in preserving the For other people, PVA refers to analyses not Blackfaced Spoonbill Platalea minor wintering grounds necessarily associated with a meeting that brings in Taiwan. We need your participation in writing let­ together our current understanding of the popula­ ters to support this effort. See page 11 for details. tion of the species, of population dynamic models, genetic models and current understanding of the Finally, we must develop Action Plans for all of dynamic changes in the environment. We have the species of Storks, Ibises and Spoonbills. We have asked people currently involved in Population begun to determine the conservation status and con­ Viability Analysis to provide their ideas of PV A. servation needs of many species. This must be updated and compiled. We will call on all of you for I. Population viability assessment (PVA) is a your participation. Your ideas and concerns are procedure that allows managers to simulate, using always important to our joint efforts. computer models, extinction processes that act on small populations and therefore assess their long­ -- Malcolm Coulter and Koen Brouwer term viability. In both real and simulated popula­ tions, a number of interacting demographic, genet­ ic, environmental, and catastrophic processes POPULATION VIABILITY ANALYSIS determine the vulnerability of a population to extinction. These four types of extinction process Population Viability Analysis or Population Viability can be simulated in computer models and the Assessment or even Population Vulnerability Analysis effects of both deterministic and stochastic forces (PVA) is a term that is increasingly used among con­ can be explored. In turn, the outcome of various servationists in reference to a process developed to Malcolm C. Coulter, P.O. Box 48, Chocorua, Naw Hampshire 03817, USA; Koen Brouwer, National Foundation for Research in Zoological Gardens, c/o Amsterdam Zoo, P.O. Box 20164, 1000 HO Amsterdam, The Netherlands management options such as reducing mortality, PVA is an important and rapidly developing supplementing the population, and increasing tool that will be increasingly important in our carrying capacity can also be simulated. Thus, management of small populations of endangered PVA provides managers with a powerful tool to species. We welcome your ideas on this for future aid in assessing the viability of small populations newsletters. and in setting target numbers for species recovery as a basis for planning and carrying out recovery programs. Suggested references for PVA In addition, having performance-based management programs enables progress to be quantified and as­ Soule, M., and B. Wilcox, eds. 1980. Conservation sessed. PVA also offers managers a policy tool when Biology: An Evolutionary-Ecological Approach. vying for limited financial resources. PVA allows Sinauer. exploration of management options for small popula­ tions of endangered species. Soule, M., ed. 1986. Conservation Biology: Science of Scarcity and Diversity. Sinauer. -- T.W. Clark, G.N. Backhouse, R.C. Lacy Captive Breeding Specialist Group Soule, M., ed. 1987. Viable Populations for Conserva­ tion. Cambridge University Press. 11. The appropriate uses of PVA are (1) as a tool for screening small populations to detect critical situation, and (2) as a means of making compara­ PROTECTING THE GEM OF THE ORIENT tive assessments of the impact of alternative --ORIENTAL CRESTED IBIS management practices on population viability. In most cases, the data available for PVA are not May 23, 1981 was a memorable day for or­ sufficiently detailed or complete to warrant ac­ nithology around the world. Eleven years ago Chinese cepting the numerical results of PV A at face Ornithologists found seven Oriental Crested Ibises value. Rather, the results should serve one of the Nipponia nippon on Mount Oin in Shanxi Province. two functions mentioned above. The ibis had not been seen for twenty years and was thought to be extinct. Chinese ornithologists spent PVA is very useful as a method of synthesiz­ three years traveling over 50,000 km in hopes of ing available information about species biology rediscovering the bird. They found the birds in Yaojia­ and demography, including both "hard" data and gou Valley, a small valley in Yang county on the "expert opinion". lt helps identify gaps in infor­ southern slopes of Mount Oin. The news caused a mation and, in conjunction with sensitivity analy­ sensation throughout the world. Many people, espe­ sis of PV A models, direct attention to those cially the Japanese, have followed the fate of this places where lack of information most seriously small population with interest, and have offered affects our ability to draw conclusions about suggestions for protecting the Gem of the Orient. We population viability under different management can look back at the last ten years to see how well the points out where caution is needed when formu­ birds are doing. lating management plans under uncertain informa­ tion. History When PV A is used on species with more than The Oriental Crested Ibis is a medium-sized one isolated wild population, an important meth­ wading bird endemic to Asia. lt was once found in odological question arises: what is the appropriate China, North Korea, South Korea, Japan and the geographic scale for the· PVA? This question Russian Far East. They bred in northern China, the should be answered in the context of both species Koreas, Japan and the Russian Far east. In the biology and species management. With respect to autumn, ibises from the northern part of the range species biology, most populations have a hierar­ migrated to spend the winter along the middle and chical spatial structure, where at some geographic lower reaches of the Yangtze River, Taiwan Island and scale the rates of interaction with other subpopu­ Hainan Island. Birds in the southern part of the breed­ lations (via migration or dispersal) diminish. ing area may have remained within the same region These "natural" points of weaker connection year-round and may not have migrated. occur at various points within the species' range, from very local populations up to regional and, Man has exploited his environment, destroying finally, the entire species population. The appro­ important habitats, using large quantities of fertilizers, priate point at which to break the PV A depends pesticides and herbicides. Important habitats have on the scale of management actions being com­ become poorer and many have been destroyed. As a pared. The biological scale and the management result the Crested Ibis has decreased in numbers and scale should coincide as nearly as possible. become extinct in much of its former range. lt was declared an endangered bird at the International Pro­ -- Lynn A. Maguire tected Bird Conference held in Tokyo in 1960. lt is Duke University now viewed as one of the rarest birds by ornitholo­ gists and conservationists throughout the world. 2 In China, Crested Ibises have appeared in liter­ rare birds is promoted among the people in the thickly ature as far back as 1900 years ago. Ibises were forested mountains, towns and factories nearby. In found from Hainan Island in the south to Heilongjiang 1984, the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications of Province in the north and Gansu Province in the West. the People's Republic of China issued a set of Numbers decreased. In the 1930's, ibises were still commemorative stamps of Crested Ibises. The Zoolog­ seen in 14 provinces but by the 1 950' s, they were ical Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of recorded only in Gansu, Shanxi and Jiansu provinces. Sciences, the Zoological Research Institute of Shanxi The last ibis was taken in Kang County, Gansu Prov­ Province, the Shanxi Protection and Observation Sta­ ince in 1964. tion, and other institutions have studied the ecology of the ibises in the wild, and have attempted to breed the Larger numbers were found in Japan.