Why Do Eggs Fail? An investigation into hatching failure in wild and managed bird populations

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Many conservation programmes incorporate managed wild and captive bird populations aspart of their strategies to preserve endangered species and bring them "back from the brink",but these populations often exhibit high rates of hatching failure. Hatching failure affectsapproximately 10% of avian eggs overall, but much higher incidence rates can occur inendangered species. Reproductive success is therefore of major interest to conservationprogrammes, with previous research showing that infertility is typically the main cause ofhatching failure in captive populations, while early embryo mortality (EEM) is more commonin wild populations. Still, little is known about the drivers leading to hatching failure, with thedifferences between wild and captive populations indicating that factors may be environmentand/or management dependent.I aim to investigate why managed bird populations often exhibit high levels of hatching failure,working with wild and captive managed populations in the UK and New Zealand to establishthe key factors underlying infertility and EEM. I will review the current interventionsimplemented by different programmes for managed populations and will identify patterns ofinfertility and EEM within and between species, then investigate the intrinsic and extrinsiccauses, with a focus on behaviour, environment, disease, and egg microbiomes.