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In the field of biodiversity conservation, there is a growing need for research to translate to real-world impacts. Currently there exists a gap between research outcomes and on the ground action, commonly referred to as the knowledgeaction gap. Previous research has focused on identifying the causes of the gap, but less research has focused on how to bridge it. We conducted an online survey with conservation researchers and practitioners to identify barriers in the science-to application pipeline and to understand how potential solutions would need to account for their information needs and workflows. Through a qualitative analysis of the open-ended survey responses, we found that information about tools and approaches to address conservation challenges is needed, but decision makers also need information to help them account for context specific barriers and opportunities. Solution-specific information alone, however, is often insufficient for practitioners, who also require the resource capacity and capable personnel to work with that information. Word of mouth and scholarly databases are the most common ways of learning about new tools and techniques, but lack of time, funding and personnel are barriers to implementing them. In addition, respondents identified a need for increased engagement with the conservation social sciences. We argue that a usercentered design approach should underpin any proposed solution to the gap and suggest that an online tool could be one effective solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supplemental feeding is a common soft‐release strategy for increasing settlement, survival, and breeding in animals after translocation. However, supplemental feeding can also hinder natural patterns of dispersal or influence social interactions. Some drawbacks of feeding can be mitigated if feeding stations can function as management tools for directing animals' movement, for example, by guiding them toward wild food resources or prospective territories while directing them away from potential threats, for example, predator hotspots or urban/agricultural centers. However, these effects may not work equally across individuals or habitat types. For species such as 'alalā (Corvus hawaiiensis), Hawaii's last living corvid, being able to manipulate space use via supplemental feeders could improve reintroduction outcomes. We determined if and how feeding stations influence a released population of 'alalā by strategically moving feeders across varying distances and habitat types, while measuring how quickly birds discovered new feeders and how their space use changed. We found that 'alalā discovered feeders more rapidly in closed as opposed to open canopy habitat, and feeder movement influenced how far 'alalā ranged, especially in afternoon periods. Sex, social network position, and individual home range size did not predict feeder discovery. These insights offer lessons for using supplemental feeding when managing reintroductions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While marine hermit crabs are well known for being omnivorous filter feeders, less is known about the role they may play as active carrion scavengers in intertidal ecosystems. Prior studies have revealed that intertidal hermit crabs can be attracted to chemical cues from predated gastropods. Yet their attraction is usually assumed to be driven primarily by the availability of new shells rather than by food. We conducted field experiments to assess hermit crabs' potential role as generalist carrion scavengers on the California Coast, examining their speed of attraction and the size of the aggregations they formed in response to chemical cues from freshly smashed gastropods and mussels, both of which indicated available carrion. Compared to all other marine species, hermit crabs (Pagurus samuelis, P. hirsutiusculus, and P. granosimanus) were the fastest to arrive at the provisioning sites. Hermit crabs also dominated the provisioning sites, accumulating in the largest numbers, with aggregations of up to 20 individuals, which outcompeted all other scavengers for carrion. Notably, hermit crabs arrived equally quickly for both smashed gastropod and mussel, even though the latter does not offer suitable shells for hermit crabs and even though the former only yields shell-related chemical cues over time frames longer than our experiments. These results thus suggest that shell availability is not the only, or even the primary, reason marine intertidal hermit crabs aggregate at carrion sites; they also aggregate to forage, thereby playing an important role as active carrion scavengers in intertidal ecosystems. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00227-015-2639-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users., Author(s): Mark E. Laidre[sup.1] [sup.2] , Alison L. Greggor[sup.1] [sup.3] Author Affiliations: (1) Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA (2) Department of Biological Sciences, Dartmouth College, [...]

Birds can be unintentionally injured or killed by mammal traps. Unfortunately, some birds in Hawai‘i, including puaiohi (Myadestes palmeri), and in New Zealand, have been killed by the widely used Goodnature® A24 rat-stoat self-resetting trap (A24s) during rodent control. To help address this problem, we conducted two sets of aviary trials using (1) barriers and (2) existing A24 excluders with red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus), European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), and a single puaiohi. We conducted barrier trials to inform future bird excluder designs by establishing the minimum gap-height beneath a barrier that blackbirds and starlings successfully overcome. During barrier trials, starlings defeated barriers significantly lower (≥ 1.9 cm) than blackbirds (≥ 2.9 cm). We then presented disarmed A24s with no excluder or with one of two excluders (plastic Goodnature, 11 cm length; and metal mesh, 10 cm, or 15–17 cm length for puaiohi) to each bird species. We placed the A24s and excluders low (11–25 cm trap height, 0–10 cm excluder height) and high (50–83 cm trap height, 37–72 cm excluder height) above ground to test bird entry abilities at trap heights used by land managers to control rodents. During the A24 excluder trials, all three bird species entered the trap at low or high heights with no excluder, confirming bird risk of injury when excluders aren’t used. Excluders greatly decreased entry into A24s by blackbirds and puaiohi, but not by starlings. Plastic and metal excluders prevented puaiohi entry at low height only. Based on our trials and recent field uses, the plastic excluder performed best for excluding all three bird species if placed so the lower edge of the excluder is 0–2 cm above ground. However, plastic and metal excluders can clog with dead rodents when positioned low. Future trials aiming to exclude all small birds from A24s while maintaining trap efficacy against target rodents should consider new excluder designs incorporating the 1.9–2.9 cm gap-height thresholds. When deciding whether to use excluders and appropriate trap heights, managers need to consider both the risk of non-target injuries or deaths and the impact of potentially decreasing trap efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Practitioners have increasingly turned to conservation breeding to address species extinction. Breeding programs aim to maximize genetic diversity, but often genetic pairings are behaviorally incompatible, which can compromise offspring production. Allowing animals to choose their own mate can improve compatibility and increase the number and quality of offspring produced. However, designing mate choice protocols can be challenging when dealing with endangered species where little is known about their reproductive biology and behavior. We present the first experimental attempt to develop a mate‐choice program for the endangered Hawaiian honeycreeper, the 'akikiki (Oreomystis bairdi). We aimed to determine (1) which behaviors predict preference, (2) how best to observe preference, and (3) whether preference predicts successful socialization, nest building and egg production. We gave each female a choice between two males and assessed preference over multiple observations. Each female was then paired with a preferred or a nonpreferred male and their breeding outcomes were tracked. 'Akikiki paired with a preferred mate were more likely to lay eggs and had more eggs per clutch. We identify the optimal length, number, and complexity of observations for determining preference, thereby balancing the time investment of staff, while maximizing the potential reproductive output of the program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Birds can be unintentionally injured or killed by mammal traps. Unfortunately, some birds in Hawai'i, including puaiohi (Myadestes palmeri), and in New Zealand, have been killed by the widely used Goodnature® A24 rat-stoat self-resetting trap (A24s) during rodent control. To help address this problem, we conducted two sets of aviary trials using (1) barriers and (2) existing A24 excluders with red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus), European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), and a single puaiohi. We conducted barrier trials to inform future bird excluder designs by establishing the minimum gap-height beneath a barrier that blackbirds and starlings successfully overcome. During barrier trials, starlings defeated barriers significantly lower (= 1.9 cm) than blackbirds (= 2.9 cm). We then presented disarmed A24s with no excluder or with one of two excluders (plastic Goodnature, 11 cm length; and metal mesh, 10 cm, or 15-17 cm length for puaiohi) to each bird species. We placed the A24s and excluders low (11-25 cm trap height, 0-10 cm excluder height) and high (50-83 cm trap height, 37-72 cm excluder height) above ground to test bird entry abilities at trap heights used by land managers to control rodents. During the A24 excluder trials, all three bird species entered the trap at low or high heights with no excluder, confirming bird risk of injury when excluders aren't used. Excluders greatly decreased entry into A24s by blackbirds and puaiohi, but not by starlings. Plastic and metal excluders prevented puaiohi entry at low height only. Based on our trials and recent field uses, the plastic excluder performed best for excluding all three bird species if placed so the lower edge of the excluder is 0-2 cm above ground. However, plastic and metal excluders can clog with dead rodents when positioned low. Future trials aiming to exclude all small birds from A24s while maintaining trap efficacy against target rodents should consider new excluder designs incorporating the 1.9-2.9 cm gap-height thresholds. When deciding whether to use excluders and appropriate trap heights, managers need to consider both the risk of non-target injuries or deaths and the impact of potentially decreasing trap efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solar power is a renewable energy source with great potential to help meet increasing global energy demands and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. However, research is scarce on how solar facilities affect wildlife. With input from professionals in ecology, conservation, and energy, we conducted a research‐prioritization process and identified key questions needed to better understand impacts of solar facilities on wildlife. We focused on animal behavior, which can be used to identify population responses before mortality or other fitness consequences are documented. Behavioral studies can also offer approaches to understand the mechanisms leading to negative interactions (e.g., collision, singeing, avoidance) and provide insight into mitigating effects. Here, we review how behavioral responses to solar facilities, including perception, movement, habitat use, and interspecific interactions are priority research areas. Addressing these themes will lead to a more comprehensive understanding of the effects of solar power on wildlife and guide future mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrating knowledge and principles of animal behavior into wildlife conservation and management has led to some concrete successes but has failed to improve conservation outcomes in other cases. Many conservation interventions involve attempts to either attract or repel animals, which we refer to as approach/avoidance issues. These attempts can be reframed as issues of manipulating the decisions animals make, which are driven by their perceptual abilities and attentional biases, as well as the value animals attribute to current stimuli and past learned experiences. These processes all fall under the umbrella of animal cognition. Here, we highlight rules that emerge when considering approach/avoidance conservation issues through the lens of cognitive-based management. For each rule, we review relevant conservation successes and failures to better predict the conditions in which behavior can be manipulated, and we suggest how to avoid future failures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although examples of successful applications of behavioral ecology research to policy and management exist, knowledge generated from such research is in many cases under-utilized by managers and policy makers. On their own, empirical studies and traditional reviews do not offer the robust syntheses that managers and policy makers require to make evidence-based decisions and evidence-informed policy. Similar to the evidence-based revolution in medicine, the application of formal systematic review processes has the potential to invigorate the field of behavioral ecology and accelerate the uptake of behavioral evidence in policy and management. Systematic reviews differ from traditional reviews and meta-analyses in that their methods are peer reviewed and prepublished for maximum transparency, the evidence base is widened to cover work published outside of academic journals, and review findings are formally communicated with stakeholders. This approach can be valuable even when the systematic literature search fails to yield sufficient evidence for a full review or meta-analysis; preparing systematic maps of the existing evidence can highlight deficiencies in the evidence base, thereby directing future research efforts. To standardize the use of systematic evidence syntheses in the field of environmental science, the Collaboration for Environmental Evidence (CEE) created a workflow process to certify the comprehensiveness and repeatability of systematic reviews and maps, and to maximize their objectivity. We argue that the application of CEE guidelines to reviews of applied behavioral interventions will make robust behavioral evidence easily accessible to managers and policy makers to support their decision-making, as well as improve the quality of basic research in behavioral ecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competition for limiting resources drives animal aggression. Aggression in hermit crabs has been well studied in shell acquisition circumstances, yet less is known about hermit crabs' competitive behavior in other contexts, especially as they relate to feeding. As active foragers, competition for food resources may be a major determinant of hermit crab aggression and fighting behavior, particularly in intertidal marine environments, where protein-rich carrion may be limiting. Here, we measured aggressive, competitive interactions between hermit crabs [Pagurus samuelis (Stimpson, 1857)] that were presented with carrion in the laboratory, immediately after they were collected from the field. Aggregations of three crabs were provided with either mussel or gastropod flesh. Both forms of carrion naturally indicate food availability, though only the latter may correlate with potential shell availability. We found that levels of aggression rose significantly in response to both carrion conditions, but not in response to a control condition involving the introduction of a non-eatable object. Larger individuals displayed the highest levels of aggressive behavior, but levels of aggression did not differ between crabs provided with the gastropod and the mussel flesh. These results reveal that food--independent of a shell resource--can be a powerful motivator for competitive behavior in hermit crabs. Further studies of food-related aggression between different hermit crab species could shed light on how interspecific competition might lead to potential specializations on different carrion or prey resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Endangered species have small, unsustainable population sizes that are geographically or genetically restricted. Ex-situ conservation programmes are therefore faced with the challenge of breeding sufficiently sized, genetically diverse populations earmarked for reintroduction that have the behavioural skills to survive and breed in the wild. Yet, maintaining historically beneficial behaviours may be insufficient, as research continues to suggest that certain cognitive-behavioural skills and flexibility are necessary to cope with human-induced rapid environmental change (HIREC). This paper begins by reviewing interdisciplinary studies on the 'captivity effect' in laboratory, farmed, domesticated and feral vertebrates and finds that captivity imposes rapid yet often reversible changes to the brain, cognition and behaviour. However, research on this effect in ex-situ conservation sites is lacking. This paper reveals an apparent mismatch between ex-situ enrichment aims and the cognitive-behavioural skills possessed by animals currently coping with HIREC. After synthesizing literature across neuroscience, behavioural biology, comparative cognition and field conservation, it seems that ex-situ endangered species deemed for reintroduction may have better chances of coping with HIREC if their natural cognition and behavioural repertoires are actively preserved. Evaluating the effects of environmental challenges rather than captivity per se is recommended, in addition to using targeted cognitive enrichment., Competing Interests: We have no competing interests., (© 2023 The Authors.)

Animal welfare and conservation breeding have overlapping and compatible goals that are occasionally divergent. Efforts to improve enclosures, provide enriching experiences, and address behavioral and physical needs further the causes of animal welfare in all zoo settings. However, by mitigating stress, increasing behavioral competence, and enhancing reproduction, health, and survival, conservation breeding programs must also focus on preparing animals for release into the wild. Therefore, conservation breeding facilities must strike a balance of promoting high welfare, while minimizing the effects of captivity to increase population sustainability. As part of the Hawaii Endangered Bird Conservation Program, San Diego Zoo Global operates two captive breeding facilities that house a number of endangered Hawaiian bird species. At our facilities we aim to increase captive animal welfare through husbandry, nutrition, behavior-based enrichment, and integrated veterinary practices. These efforts help foster a captive environment that promotes the development of species-typical behaviors. By using the "Opportunities to Thrive" guiding principles, we outline an outcome-based welfare strategy, and detail some of the related management inputs, such as transitioning to parental rearing, and conducting veterinary exams remotely. Throughout we highlight our evidence-based approach for evaluating our practices, by monitoring welfare and the effectiveness of our inputs. Additionally we focus on some of the unique challenges associated with improving welfare in conservation breeding facilitates and outline concrete future steps for improving and evaluating welfare outcomes that also meet conservation goals.

Nature is composed of self-propelled, animate agents and inanimate objects. Laboratory studies have shown that human infants and a few species discriminate between animate and inanimate objects. This ability is assumed to have evolved to support social cognition and filial imprinting, but its ecological role for wild animals has never been examined. An alternative, functional explanation is that discriminating stimuli based on their potential for animacy helps animals distinguish between harmless and threatening stimuli. Using remote-controlled experimental stimulus presentations, we tested if wild jackdaws ( Corvus monedula ) respond fearfully to stimuli that violate expectations for movement. Breeding pairs ( N = 27) were presented at their nests with moving and non-moving models of ecologically relevant stimuli (birds, snakes and sticks) that differed in threat level and propensity for independent motion. Jackdaws were startled by movement regardless of stimulus type and produced more alarm calls when faced with animate objects. However, they delayed longest in entering their nest-box after encountering a stimulus that should not move independently, suggesting they recognized the movement as unexpected. How jackdaws develop expectations about object movement is not clear, but our results suggest that discriminating between animate and inanimate stimuli may trigger information gathering about potential threats., Competing Interests: We declare we have no competing interests.