Conservation translocations (CTs) are increasingly being undertaken for the conservation management of Australian native mammals.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) defines CTs as ‘the intentional movement and release of a living organism where the primary objective is a conservation benefit’ and this is an overarching term that encompasses a range of conservation-related animal movements (IUCN/SSC 2013).
CTs can be further divided into movements within an animal’s indigenous range (reinforcement or reintroduction) or movements outside of an animal’s indigenous range (assisted colonisation or ecological replacement). The most important conservation-related animal movements in the Australian context are reintroductions and assisted colonisations. Reintroduction is defined as ‘the intentional movement and release of an organism inside its indigenous range from which it has disappeared’. Although assisted colonisation is defined as ‘the intentional movement and release of an organism outside its indigenous range to avoid extinction of populations of the focal species’. Animals for CTs may be sourced from either free-ranging or zoo-bred populations. The term ‘conservation translocation’ will be used in this chapter to cover conservation-related animal movements in general, while ‘reintroduction’ and ‘assisted colonisation’ will be used where those terms are specifically appropriate.CTs require diverse skill sets and as such are typically carried out by multidisciplinary teams of which veterinarians are key personnel. The actual physical movement of animals represents only a small component of the CT pathway, which should incorporate the following stages: planning; feasibility and design; risk assessment; release and implementation; and monitoring with ongoing adaptive management (IUCN/SSC 2013). Detailed guidelines and general considerations for undertaking CTs are described elsewhere (Seddon et al. 2007; IUCN/SSC 2013; Parker et al. 2015). There is growing recognition of the importance of health and disease considerations in CT programs (Leighton 2002; Mathews et al. 2006; Kock et al. 2007; Miller 2007; Ewen et al. 2012; Sainsbury and Vaughan-Higgins 2012; Hartley and Sainsbury 2017) and increasingly, wildlife veterinarians are actively engaged at multiple points in the CT pathway (Fig. 2.1). Notable examples of Australian native mammal CTs incorporating veterinary expertise are detailed in Table 2.1. Mammal CTs in Australia most commonly involve marsupials and although there are examples for monotremes and native eutherian species, in particular native murids, veterinary contributions to these CTs have frequently been limited.
1.