Translocation of tortoises

Tom

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I've read studies, and also talked to the people who did the studies on relocating "problem" animals. It is clear that it did not work. Bears would travel 300 miles to return "home", or die trying. Coyotes were 25 miles, and rattlesnakes would travel 3 miles, many of them dying along the way. Relocation has been a slow and usually painful death sentence for most of the animals on the studies I am familiar with. It just doesn't work in the cases that I've seen. The animals don't know where the resources are, food, water and shelter, and there are other territorial conspecifics already managing that territory.

In none of these previous studies did they try to return the relocated animals to the more suitable location multiple times. DUH! Why did no one else ever figure this out??? I'm a damn animal trainer by profession, and this never even occurred to me. This is like the first time I put baby tortoises in a new and unfamiliar outdoor enclosure for sunning time. They always freak out and try to get "home", running around in a near panic. After a few repetitions, they settle in and begin exhibiting the same relaxed behavior that they show in their more familiar indoor enclosures.

This is pure genius, and it obviously works going by the eventual results they show. This is monumental. This information could/should change the way we re-introduce endangered species back to the wild.

Thanks for posting this Jamie.
 

jsheffield

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One of the perks of my new job is access to a number of research databases, and I've been spending some downtime exploring articles having to do with tortoises... there's some great stuff out there.

It gives me hope, reading about success in this sort of project.

Jamie
 
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