Impact of the socio-ecological system on animal reintroduction success

动物重新引入是世界保护工作的一个核心方面。然而，它们仍然是一项复杂的努力，并且经常失败，这需要更有效的发布后监控。在这里，动物的社会行为和交配系统至关重要，因为它们影响种群的生命率，而它们在重新引入后的不稳定性导致种群适应性降低。很少有研究包括动物行为与适应性结果的测量，以评估物种对自然和人为压力源的反应。特别是对于重新引入的物种，保护工作迫切需要揭示种群生存能力威胁的特征和影响，并确定当地居民的开发做法，以便在各种管理策略下评估这些物种的未来前景。该项目使用动物社会结构作为行为指标，旨在确定哪些社会生态因素对放归成功至关重要，以及这些因素在多大程度上受到治理策略的调节。目的是评估一个高度保护物种的社会行为与生态特征和人为压力的关键相互作用模式，该物种于20世纪30年代灭绝，并被重新引入北非。数据收集将在突尼斯的两个国家公园进行，这些公园对人们的进入采取了不同的管理策略，据报道，在这两个公园之间，大羚羊种群表现出不同的社会行为。采用跨学科的研究策略，对两个公园进行比较，可以将社会行为与生物物理环境特征以及人为影响联系起来，从而评估景观特征和人类互动对成功重新引入的贡献。在此基础上，我们将有可能进一步追溯政策对放生地点和放生成功的关键动物行为重新适应的作用。该项目将在两个层面上具有开创性。首先，这将是自野生弯角羚灭绝以来首次记录该物种的社会行为。这是至关重要的，因为北非的重新引进经验被用来规划当前在其以前的范围内密集的弯刀大羚羊恢复工作。其次，该项目将是第一个将动物对自然区域的重新适应不仅与生物物理因素而且与人为因素联系起来的项目。彻底理解人与环境的相互作用以及治理如何调节这些相互作用具有很强的政策相关性。它将提供一个概念框架，突出治理如何整合社会生态动态，从而为阐明人类与野生动物的冲突提供有价值的见解，并为当前的可持续发展问题提供信息。

Animal reintroductions are a central aspect of world conservation efforts. Yet, they are still a complex endeavor and often fail, calling for more efficient post-release monitoring. Crucial are here animal social behavior and mating system as they influence population vital rates, while their destabilization after reintroduction result in reduced population fitness. Few studies have yet included measures of animal behavior with fitness consequences to evaluate the responses of species to natural and anthropogenic stressors. Specifically in the case of reintroduced species, conservation efforts need urgently to uncover the identity and impacts of threats to population viability and determine exploitation practices of local people, in order to evaluate the future prospects of these species under various management strategies. Using animal social structure as behavioral indicator, the project aims to identify which socio-ecological factors are important for reintroduction success and to what extent these are mediated by governance strategies. The purpose is to assess key interaction patterns of social behavior with ecological features and anthropogenic pressures in a reintroduced species of high conservation concern, the Scimitar oryx that has gone extinct in the 20thC and been reintroduced to North Africa. Data collection will be performed in 2 National Tunisian parks with different management strategies regarding the access of people and between which oryx populations have been anecdotally reported to display differing social behavior. Using an interdisciplinary research strategy, the comparison between both parks will allow relating social behavior to features of the biophysical environment as well as to anthropogenic influences and thus assessing the contribution of landscape characteristics and human interactions to the success of reintroductions. On this base, it will further be possible to trace back the role of policy to crucial animal behavioral re-adaptations to release sites and to reintroduction success. The project would be seminal at 2 levels. First, it would be the first documentation of social behavior in wild-born scimitar oryx since the extinction of the species. This is of crucial importance as the North-African reintroduction experiences are used to plan current intensive Scimitar oryx restoration efforts in their former range. Second, the project would be the first to relate animal readaptation to natural areas not only to biophysical but also to anthropogenic factors. A thorough comprehension of human-environment interactions and how these are mediated by governance holds a strong policy-relevance. It will provide a conceptual framework highlighting how governance might integrate socio-ecological dynamics, and thus provide valuable insights to elucidating human-wildlife conflicts and inform current sustainable development issues.