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Assessing the effects of different management scenarios on the conservation of small island vulture populations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2020

MAURO ARESU ,
ANDREA ROTTA ,
ALBERTO FOZZI ,
ALFONSO CAMPUS ,
MARCO MUZZEDDU ,
DIONIGI SECCI ,
ILARIA FOZZI ,
DAVIDE DE ROSA  and
FIAMMETTA BERLINGUER Open the ORCID record for FIAMMETTA BERLINGUER [Opens in a new window]
MAURO ARESU
Affiliation:
Via Crispi 5, 08015Macomer, Italy.
ANDREA ROTTA
Affiliation:
University of Sassari, Ufficio Gestione Centri e Consorzi, Largo Macao 32, 07100Sassari, Italy.
ALBERTO FOZZI
Affiliation:
CRiMM onlus, Centro Ricerca Mammiferi Marini, 07028Santa Teresa di Gallura, Italy.
ALFONSO CAMPUS
Affiliation:
Associazione Naturalistica L’altra Bosa, 09089Bosa (OR), Italy.
MARCO MUZZEDDU
Affiliation:
Agenzia forestale regionale per lo sviluppo del territorio e l’ambiente della Sardegna (Fo.Re.S.T.A.S.), Viale Luigi Merello, 86 - 09123Cagliari, Italy.
DIONIGI SECCI
Affiliation:
Agenzia forestale regionale per lo sviluppo del territorio e l’ambiente della Sardegna (Fo.Re.S.T.A.S.), Viale Luigi Merello, 86 - 09123Cagliari, Italy.
ILARIA FOZZI
Affiliation:
Centro Studi Fauna, Via Vincenzo Monti 19, 07046Porto Torres (SS), Italy. ARDEA-Associazione per la Ricerca, la Divulgazione e l’Educazione Ambientale, Via Ventilabro 6, 80126 Naples, Italy.
DAVIDE DE ROSA
Affiliation:
University of Sassari, Ufficio Gestione Centri e Consorzi, Largo Macao 32, 07100Sassari, Italy. ARDEA-Associazione per la Ricerca, la Divulgazione e l’Educazione Ambientale, Via Ventilabro 6, 80126 Naples, Italy.
FIAMMETTA BERLINGUER*
Affiliation:
University of Sassari, Department of Veterinary Medicine, Via Vienna 2, 07100 Sassari, Italy.
*
*Author for correspondence; email: berling@uniss.it
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Summary

Although the population of Griffon Vulture Gyps fulvus is significantly increasing in Europe, in Italy the species is still on the Red List as ‘Critically Endangered’, with the last natural population persisting on the island of Sardinia. Several episodes of poisoning hampered the success of conservation actions implemented in the years 1987–1995. In 2005 there were estimated to be only 31–32 territorial pairs, with the population occupying the territories of Alghero and Bosa. We used a long-term dataset of reproductive records from the Sardinian Griffon Vulture populations to run a population viability analysis (PVA) to evaluate the extinction risk using the Vortex simulation software. The model estimated the probability of extinction over the next five generations (estimated generation time: 11 years, simulation time used: 55 years) as 96.4% for the Alghero population, and near-zero for the Bosa population. We used sensitivity analyses to understand how uncertainty about parameter values affect model outcomes. Population projections were evaluated under different management scenarios tackling the main threats (poisoning and human disturbance) and implementing conservation actions (supplementary feeding and restocking). Our results showed that population size is a critical factor in affecting the projections of population dynamics of Griffon Vultures. Sensitivity analyses highlighted the importance of poisoning events to population persistence and showed that juvenile and adult mortality rates had a secondary impact on population viability. The only conservation measure effective in significantly increasing stochastic growth rates in the Alghero population, whose initial population was set at five individuals, was the complete removal of poisoning events. When targeting the Bosa population (initial population size 94 individuals), supplementary feeding, mitigation of the risk of poisoning episodes, restocking, and mitigation of human disturbance in the reproductive sites significantly increased stochastic growth rate. A cost-effectiveness analysis should be performed to prioritise interventions.

Keywords

population viability analysisGriffon Vulturefeeding stationsrestockinghuman disturbance
Type
Research Article
Information
Bird Conservation International , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , March 2021 , pp. 111 - 128
Copyright
© BirdLife International, 2020

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