Landscapes for the conservation of the Giant Ibis in Cambodia

巨朱鹮是一种极度濒危的鸟类，现在只存在于柬埔寨北部稀树大草原上的一个小种群。柬埔寨野生动物保护协会（WCS）通过一项社区保护计划，保护了大约20%的筑巢种群，大多数巢穴每年都能成功地养育后代，但经过十年的努力，还没有迹象表明种群数量恢复。随着大型食草动物的减少，大草原上的景观发生了变化，这可能会影响朱鹭的补充，但幼朱鹭对景观的利用却鲜为人知。WCS打算实施景观管理活动来增加朱鹭的数量，该项目将使用GPS跟踪技术来评估这些工作的成功，并协助制定新的保护计划。目的：(1)通过GPS定位识别幼朱鹭使用的景观特征。(2)评估在水坑和整个景观中模拟草食动物活动的干预措施的成功程度；(3)验证大型草食动物的减少正在阻止朱鹭恢复的假设；(4)制定最新的巨朱鹭保护行动计划

The Giant Ibis is a critically endangered species of bird, now restricted to a small population scattered across the savannahs of northern Cambodia. Through a community conservation programme, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Cambodia protect around 20% of the nesting population, most nests successfully raising young each year but after a decade of such work, there is no sign of a population recovery yet. The savannahs occupied by the ibis have seen landscape-scale changes with loss of large herbivores altering the landscape in a variety of ways that may affect ibis recruitment, but the use of the landscape by young ibis is poorly known. WCS intend to implement landscape management activities to boost ibis populations and this project will use GPS tracking technology to assess the success of these works and assist in developing new conservation plans.OBJECTIVES:(1) To identify the landscape features used by young ibis through GPS tagging.(2) To evaluate the success of interventions designed to simulate herbivore activity at waterholes and across the landscape(3) To test the hypothesis that loss of large herbivores is preventing ibis recovery(4) To develop an updated conservation action plan for Giant Ibis