Once, governments were not keen to translocate large carnivores to an area where they have been exterminated or to reinforce an existing population to increase its viability.
However, our hashtag#MSc student Seth Thomas, who recently finished his studies at the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, found an interesting pattern. Published earlier this year in “Biological Conservation”, Seth reported an increasing number of countries practicing carnivore translocation, happening on all continents.
Overall, two thirds of relocations were successful, with hashtag#success increasing significantly since before 2007. For wild-born carnivores, success rates increased from 53% to 70%; and for captive-born animals, success rates doubled from 32% to 64%.
In the last 15 years we have become more successful at translocating and reintroducing large carnivores. This allows us to be hashtag#optimistic for the future of rebuilding damaged hashtag#ecosystems around the globe.
But we must remember that it is always more important to protect large carnivore populations where they are now before we lose them. Still 34% of individual translocations fail.
As the hashtag#UN decade of hashtag#ecosystemrestoration gets underway, successful relocations of large carnivores have the potential to make a substantial contribution to hashtag#biodiversity conservation and to improve hashtag#rewilding efforts.
hashtag#RewildingCoalition
hashtag#RestoreNature
hashtag#WhyWeRewild
hashtag#RewildingHope
hashtag#WilderEurope
hashtag#CallForAWilderEurope
hashtag#RewildingLeaders
hashtag#MakingEuropeAWilderPlace
hashtag#conservationoptimism
University of OxfordSchool of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford
The Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery
Department of Biology, University of Oxford
Rewilding Britain
Endangered Wildlife Trust