Strategies for integrating animal social learning and culture into conservation translocation practice

Abstract

Conservation translocations are increasingly used in species' recovery. Their success often depends upon maintaining or restoring survival-relevant behaviour, which is socially learned in many animals. A lack of species- or population-appropriate learning can lead to the loss of adaptive behaviour, increasing the likelihood of negative human interactions and compromising animals' ability to migrate, exploit resources, avoid predators, integrate into wild populations, reproduce and survive. When applied well, behavioural tools can address deficiencies in socially learned behaviours and boost survival. However, their use has been uneven between species and translocation programmes, and behaviour commonly contributes to translocation failure. Critically, current international guidance (e.g. the International Union for Conservation of Nature's translocation guidelines) does not directly discuss social learning or its facilitation. We argue that linking knowledge about social learning to appropriate translocation strategies will enhance guidance and direct future research. We offer a framework for incorporating animal social learning into translocation planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation across wild and captive settings. Our recommendations consider barriers practitioners face in contending with logistics, time constraints and intervention cost. We emphasize that stronger links between researchers, translocation practitioners and wildlife agencies would increase support for social learning research, and improve the perceived relevance and feasibility of facilitating social learning.This article is part of the theme issue 'Animal culture: conservation in a changing world'.

Keywords: captive-to-wild translocation; conservation behaviour; conservation breeding; non-human culture; reintroduction; wild-to-wild translocation.

Figure 1.

Examples of the stages of a translocation programme where social learning or culture can be used. Translocations involve a series of key steps that include selection of suitable animals and environments, pre-conditioning animals, animal release, monitoring and evaluation [7]. Culture and social information use can be considered at any stage in the pathway to successful translocation. (A) Selection of animals is an important decision. Age and social status are known to influence the propensity for social learning. For example, young lizards (Eulam prus quoyii) are known to learn where and on what to forage from adult conspecifics [38], which could improve foraging success of translocated animals in new locations if released together. (B) Prior to release, it is often necessary to train captive-reared animals to respond appropriately to stimuli they are likely to encounter in the wild. For example, hatchery-reared Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) can be taught to forage for live prey in appropriate locations [39], and species ranging from birds to small mammals can benefit from social learning about predators [13]. (C) The social composition of released animals can facilitate integration with existing animals and maximize information transfer among group members. For example, whooping cranes migrate more effectively when migrating with older birds [15]. (D) Released animals may also benefit from having opportunities to acquire socially learnt information about the environment. For example, bighorn sheep translocated to environments where the species had been extirpated lacked knowledge necessary to migrate, but sheep translocated to existing populations socially learnt how to migrate [40]. Such considerations could be important for deciding where translocation would be most appropriate. (E) Monitoring of translocated animals in their environment should take place to understand what socially relevant behaviours may be important for translocation success. For example, elephant social structure has been shown to impact the occurrence of aberrant, potentially problematic behaviours in young males, which are rectified through the introduction of older bulls [41]. Such intervention requires monitoring of social behaviour. (F) Social manipulations before and after translocations should be evaluated for their effectiveness, and the cost–benefit of considering social information should be explored. For example, evaluating the success of captive release programmes on the survival of translocated regent honeyeaters revealed that song tutoring using wild individuals was important for increased survival post-release [30]. Image credits: (A) John Tann, (B) Peter E. Steenstra/USFWS, (C) Ryan Hagerty/USFWS, (D) public domain, (E) Caitlin, TheLizardQueen and (F) Jss367.

Figure 2.

Decision support for pursuing interventions that target social learning in translocation programmes. If a programme identifies that behaviour may be negatively impacting success, there are several avenues (columns of text) to consider before embarking on an intervention that targets social learning. For each avenue, there may only be incomplete information available, highlighting uncertainty about the outcome. Programmes need to decide—based on a careful cost–benefit analysis—whether to proceed in light of this uncertainty or to pursue research to resolve it (yellow light). Green lights suggest that, at least along that avenue, the intervention should benefit from applying social learning and cultural processes. However, if any avenue hits a red light, this is an indication not to proceed. The ultimate value of any avenue must be weighed with the context of the wider programme in mind. For instance, although a documented fitness benefit to a cultural behaviour may exist, if that may only be realized once in a lifetime (e.g. to help during multi-decade drought), it may be considered less important than behaviours that accrue benefits more predictably or over shorter timescales (such as every year). The temporal scales over which cultural factors operate are in need of further study, which translocations may provide the opportunity to test in some cases. During translocation planning, it may be worthwhile to conduct this decision support exercise while considering the potential problem behaviours that might arise. Different values may be placed on each avenue depending on the specific behaviour and species.