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Franzreb 1999). It is important to compare differences
in how success was defined and measured among
studies because past success serves as the basis for
developing translocation protocol.
Generally, our findings offer only limited
support for the current translocation guidelines for red-
cockaded woodpeckers adopted by the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service (2003), which include (1) moving
subadult (<12 months) males and females; (2)
conducting translocations from 15 September to 1
January; and (3) restricting translocations between
donor and recipient populations to within recovery units
whenever possible. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
does not issue permits for translocations of adult breeder
and helper males because of their tendency to return to
their original territory (Odom 1983, Reinman 1984,
Allen et at. 1993, Carrie et al. 1996), and possible
adverse impacts to donor populations. Genetic vari-
ability among populations serves as the basis for habitat
and geographic proximity recommendations (Stangel et
al. 1992; Haig et al. 1993, 1994, 1996).
Our findings support mate provisioning as a
valuable conservation tool. We found 42% of females
translocated to clusters containing solitary males
remained at the recipient cluster to become breeders.
Successful mate-provisioning (female to male) results in
the immediate change from a territory occupied by a
non-breeding, solitary male to a territory occupied by a
potential breeding group. In contrast to other studies
(Allen et al. 1993, Franzreb 1999), we found no differ-
ence between translocation success of adult and
subadult females. Translocating subadult females from
a donor group/population is likely to have minimal
impact on the group and population, given their reported
dispersal (31%) and mortality (68%) rates (Walters et al.
1988a). Moreover, we found no significant difference in
the success of translocated subadults on the basis of age
(5 to 8 months), which is consistent with Franzreb
(1999). Because of the increasing difficulty of locating
subadults to translocate as the bird's first potential
breeding season approaches, we suggest considering
individuals for translocation anytime between age 5 and
10 months, generally from October through March.
We found no direct evidence to support a
translocation protocol to maintain similar physiographic
provinces, which approximate recovery units in most
instances. Although success was slightly higher in
translocations to similar than disparate physiographic
provinces (30% vs. 28%) and forest types (33% vs.
21%), differences were not statistically significant
(power = 0.89 and 0.63, respectively; a = 0.05).
However, because geographically distant populations
generally share less genetic material (Stangel et al.
1992) and show some clinal variation (Mengel and
Jackson 1977, Pizzoni-Ardemani 1990), it is recom-
mended that individuals selected for translocation come
from adjacent or nearby populations (Haig et al. 1993)
or from the same physiographic province (Haig et al.
Table 3. Red-cockaded woodpecker translocation success reported in the southeast, U. S. 1994
to 1999.
Translocation type
Study Female to male Potential pair' Criteria for success
Costa and Kennedy (1994) 62% (48 of 77) 33% (18 of 54) ranged from 'interacted
well' to 'fledged young'
Hess and Costa (1995) 61% (11 of 18) remaining at release
cluster through
subsequent breeding
season
Carrie et al. (1999) 65% (11 of 17) remained in the
population and
successfully bred
Franzreb (1999) 82% (18 of 22) 40% (4 of 10) remained in the vicinity of
release cluster for -30
days
Present study 42% (36 of 86) 13% (10 of 79) remaining at the release
cluster, followed by
pairing and nesting
a Number in parentheses is the number of individual birds.
b included translocation of 5 potential pairs to inactive clusters and later 6 additional
single birds (3M, 2F) to solitary individuals, and 1 solitary male was released to determine
whether he would remain at the release site.
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