Animal Behavior After Translocation into Novel Environments

Conservation translocations (i.e., the mediated movement of living organisms from one area, in order to be released in another) is an increasingly popular conservation strategy that aims to improve the status of focal species or restore natural ecosystem functions and processes. In many cases, individuals are released into areas within the current or historic (indigenous) distribution of their species (i.e. reintroduction and reinforcement), but rapid human-induced change increasingly necessitates the release of species outside their indigenous ranges (i.e. conservation introductions such as assisted colonization and ecological replacement). Despite their wide application, conservation translocations are highly complex processes, not least because translocated animals are always released into a novel environment at the scale of the individual, but also for the species in the case of conservation introductions. Consequently surviving the translocation process and contributing to the establishment of growth of a new population depends to a large extent on post-release behavior and decision making in novel environments.

The behavior of organisms in novel environments is a derivative of the conditions at the release site, the released individual's cognitive abilities and past experiences, and the species' evolutionary history. While, by definition, translocated individuals always face an ontogenetically novel environment, the environment may also be evolutionarily novel, either because of fundamental changes to features of the release area due to human-induced rapid environmental changes (HIREC), or because the species is released into areas outside its historic distribution. Understanding how animals' cognitive abilities, past experiences, and evolutionary history interact with the conditions at the release site to shape their post-release behavior and ultimately their survival is therefore of crucial importance for the success of many translocation projects, as well as for our ability to predict how wild species may respond to HIREC.

This research topic aims to gather the latest scientific advances regarding the behavior of organisms in novel environments, the effects of these behaviors on the ecosystem, and the management challenges and opportunities that novel environments represent. We invite both theoretical and empirical investigations of the topic, as well as reviews and methodological papers. We expect that contributions will focus, but not be limited to, the following themes:

- Pre-release training modifying post-release behavior
- Post-release dispersal behavior
- Patch connectivity and release-site anchoring
- Post release novel inter- and intra-specific interactions
- Individual variation in responses to novel environments and its consequences
- Novel behaviors and their consequences for released populations
- Ecosystem consequences of novel behaviors and interactions of translocated species
- Social networks and genetic rescue
- Learning processes in novel environments
- Cognitive abilities and survival in novel environments
- The challenges and opportunities of managing animals in a novel environment.