Conservation Evidence: Assessing translocations and reintroductions of terrestrial carnivores

Abstract

Around the world terrestrial carnivores are facing rapid declines in population size. Larger species are especially vulnerable to declines as they typically have solitary social structures, low population densities and low fecundity. In order to prevent extinctions effective conservation practices need to be established. Conservation Evidence, a project begun at Cambridge University, is designed to gather quantitative scientific evidence for various conservation interventions into a succinct and user-friendly program that is freely accessible to the public. This report, focused on translocations and reintroductions of felids, represents a portion of the forthcoming synopsis on terrestrial carnivores. This project also shows that the ‘success’ of translocations and reintroductions is difficult to define. An intervention is typically viewed as ‘successful’ if individuals establish home ranges or reproduce, however there is no standard threshold value.