Species
Project
Results
In 2012, researchers translocated seven kangaroo rats. However, by late August, none were present.
The following year, another seven kangaroo rats were translocated, three of which were radio tagged. One of the radio-tagged rats relocated within about 100 metres of the release site, where it eventually established a permanent home and became pregnant — a strong indicator that the translocation was successful.
In 2014, the research team discovered the pregnant offspring of a rat that had been translocated in 2013 — a benchmark of high translocation success. Meanwhile, one of the three animals translocated in 2014 remained at the release site throughout the season, establishing an extensive burrow system.
Impact
Results of the study suggest that translocation and soft release of Ord’s kangaroo rats may give conservation managers a powerful tool to help them reduce the effects of habitat fragmentation and stabilize the population. However, due to the precarious state of the population, the study sample sizes were too small to compare the survival rate of the translocated rats with the rest of the population. Until this can be studied with a larger number of translocated animals, we cannot currently recommend the use of this technique except in desperate circumstances where no other alternatives exist.