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About the Authors:
Jeffrey C. Lewis
* E-mail: [email protected]
Affiliation: Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Olympia, Washington, United States of America
Roger A. Powell
Affiliation: Department of Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States of America
William J. Zielinski
Affiliation: Unite States Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, Arcata, California, United States of America
Introduction
Since the settlement of Europeans in North America, the ranges of many of the continent's carnivores have contracted significantly (e.g., black-footed ferrets [Mustela nigripes], wolves [Canis lupus], Canada lynxes [Lynx canadensis], wolverines [Gulo gulo], fishers [Martes pennanti], grizzly bears [Ursus arctos]; [1]–[6]). Translocations – the intentional transport and release of animals to reestablish, augment or introduce a population – have been used in attempts to recover extirpated or depleted populations. Translocations, however, are not always successful [7]–[9]. Carnivore translocations can be expensive, time-consuming and controversial; and their success may depend upon adequate planning, expertise, organization, and cooperation [7], [10]. Translocations that fail, even those that are well-planned and well-executed, can erode the support necessary to continue restoration efforts for imperiled species [11]. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has provided guidelines for translocations [10], [12] and several sources provide specific recommendations and cautions for carnivore translocations [7]–[9]. However, specific recommendations are lacking for many species, and wildlife managers may have little to guide them when developing a translocation program. Understanding factors that are associated with translocation success is critically important for developing adequate feasibility studies and effective implementation plans, yet such factors are often unknown.
Having recommendations would be especially valuable for the fisher, which is a candidate for federal endangered status in the Pacific states (California, Oregon, Washington) [13], is listed as an endangered species in Washington [14], and is a target species for recovery efforts in the Pacific states [15], [16]. While fishers have been translocated successfully to a number of locations in eastern and central North America, many translocations in western North America failed to re-establish populations [1], [3], [14], [15], [17].
The fisher is a mid-sized carnivore in the weasel family (Mustelidae) that occurs only in the temperate and boreal forests of North America [1]. Since the mid-1800s, the fisher's geographic distribution contracted substantially [18], due probably...