Reinforcement as a conservation tool – assessing site fidelity and movement of the endangered elongated tortoise Indotestudo elongata (Blyth, 1854)

Abstract

In order to assess the efficacy of reinforcement as a conservation tool for rehabilitated elongated tortoises Indotestudo elongata (Blyth, 1854) we released 10 adults equipped with radio tracking transmitters to the Kulen Promtep Wildlife Sanctuary in northern Cambodia. Based on short-term success indicators for reintroduction studies on reptiles we studied the tortoises’ adaptation to the new environment for five months. The tortoises successfully settled in the new environment without showing adverse effects regarding their behaviour, condition index (CI) and physical appearance. The annual survival rate was 76%. Based on individual locations collected, we analysed the tortoises’ movement patterns including daily displacement, five-month and seasonal home range sizes using minimum convex polygons (MCPs) and fixed kernel density estimators (KDEs).

Keywords:

• Testudinidae
• Kulen Promtep Wildlife Sanctuary
• release
• reintroduction
• reinforcement
• radio tracking
• kernel density estimator
• minimum convex polygon estimator
• land use

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to H.E. Chay Samith (General Director of the General Department for Administration of Nature Conservation and Protection (GDANCP) of the MoE) for kindly issuing the relevant permits and Sy Ramony (Director of the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries of the GDANCP) for his generous support. We are indebted to Ea Sokha (Project Manager and Director of the KPWS), and Hugo Rainey (former Technical Advisor of the Northern Plains Project, WCS) for facilitating the permits and their generous support at the KPWS. We thank Thomas Ziegler for his guidance and supervision and Isadora Angarita-Martinez (the former project Manager of the ACCB) for her valuable administrative support during the planning and fieldwork period. We are grateful to the late Elzbieta Bienkowska-Handschuh (former Head Keeper of the ACCB) for her help during all preparatory stages of the release and the animals’ pre-release management. Financial support was provided by the ACCB and the EAZA Shellshock Campaign, the latter through the Turtle Conservation Fund (TCF), for which we are very grateful.

Supplemental material

Supplemental material for this article can be accessed here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00222933.2014.925595

Notes

1. Erroneously often cited as (BLYTH, 1853): even though the 22nd issue [I–VII] of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal was written in 1853, it was published in 1854 (Blyth 1854/1853).