Carl G Jones

Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust · Science

Regional patterns in wind underpin the low-cost migratory flyways of billions of birds and insects, but how large-scale changes in temperature affect flight is unknown. Flight costs should increase with rising temperatures, because lift decreases as density decreases, whereas weight remains unchanged. The effects of air density on flight costs are...

Thermal soaring can offer substantial reductions in flight cost, but it is often assumed to be confined to a relatively narrow group of fliers (those with low wing loading relative to their body mass). Using high-frequency movement data, including magnetometry and GPS, we identified thermal soaring in a seabird previously thought to use only flappi...

Plastic pollution is distributed patchily around the world’s oceans. Likewise, marine organisms that are vulnerable to plastic ingestion or entanglement have uneven distributions. Understanding where wildlife encounters plastic is crucial for targeting research and mitigation. Oceanic seabirds, particularly petrels, frequently ingest plastic, are h...

Conservation translocation - the movement of species for conservation benefit - includes reintroducing species into the wild, reinforcing dwindling populations, helping species shift ranges in the face of environmental change, and moving species to enhance ecosystem function. Conservation translocation can lead to clear conservation benefits and ca...

A wide range of biologging devices are now commonly deployed to study the movement ecology of birds, but deployment of these devices is not without its potential risks and negative impacts on the welfare, behaviour and fitness of tagged individuals. However, empirical evidence for the effects of tags is equivocal. Global location sensing (GLS) logg...

The pink pigeon (Nesoenas mayeri) is an endemic species of Mauritius that has made a remarkable recovery after a severe population bottleneck in the 1970s to early 1990s. Prior to this bottleneck, an ex situ population was established from which captive‐bred individuals were released into free‐living subpopulations to increase population size and g...

Background: In migratory species, the extent of within- and between-individual variation in migratory strategies can influence potential rates and directions of responses to environmental changes. Quantifying this variation requires tracking of many individuals on repeated migratory journeys. At temperate and higher latitudes, low levels of within-...

Diospyros egrettarum is endemic to Mauritius and occurs in fragmented subpopulations in the easternu regions and on Île aux Aigrettes, a 26-hectare, coral-limestone islet off the south-east coastline. The species is known from at least 28 collections and three locations (sensu IUCN Standards and Petitions Committee 2019) with regard to the most ser...

The use of ecological replacements (analogue species to replace extinct taxa) to restore ecosystem functioning is a promising conservation tool. However, this approach is controversial, in part due to a paucity of data on interactions between analogue species and established taxa in the ecosystem. We conducted ecological surveys, comprehensively DN...

Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) are key contributors to the current global biodiversity crisis. Psittaciformes (parrots) are one of the most vulnerable avian taxa and psittacine beak and feather disease (PBFD) is the most common viral disease in wild parrots. PBFD is caused by the beak and feather disease virus (BFDV), which belongs to the Circ...

Estimating the contribution of demographic parameters to changes in population growth is essential for understanding why populations fluctuate. Integrated population models (IPMs) offer a possibility to estimate the contributions of additional demographic parameters, for which no data have been explicitly collected—typically immigration. Such param...

Conservation translocations are commonly used in recovery programmes for threatened species from a wide range of taxa, but outcomes can vary considerably both within and between programmes, and the causes of success or failure are often unclear. Central to understanding translocation success is the implementation of an accompanying monitoring progr...

Constraints on evolutionary adaptation and range shifts mean that phenotypic plasticity, which includes physiological, developmental or behavioural responses to environmental conditions, could be an important mode of adaptation to a changing climate for many species with small insular populations. While there is evidence to suggest adaptive plastic...

Recovery programmes for endangered species can become increasingly demanding over time, but managers may be reluctant to change ongoing actions that are believed to be assisting recovery. We used a quantitative risk assessment to choose support strategies for a reintroduced population of Mauritius olive white‐eyes Zosterops chloronothos. Facing inc...

Background: Flying foxes (Chiroptera: Pteropodidae) are large bats that often roost in the sun, hence solar-powered GPS/GSM devices can track their movements over extended periods. The endemic Mauritian flying fox (Pteropus niger) has recently been subjected to large-scale culling because of perceived damage to commercial fruit, and a consequent re...

Background Flying foxes (Chiroptera: Pteropodidae) are large bats that often roost in the sun, hence solar-powered GPS/GSM devices can track their movements over extended periods. The endemic Mauritian flying fox (Pteropus niger) has recently been subjected to large-scale culling because of perceived damage to commercial fruit, and a consequent red...

Emerging Infectious Diseases (EIDs) are recognised as global extinction drivers of threatened species. Unfortunately, biodiversity managers have few tested solutions to manage them when often the desperate need for solutions necessitates a response. Here we test in situ biosecurity protocols to assess the efficacy of managing Psittacine beak and fe...

The world is facing a biodiversity crisis. Nowhere is that more apparent than on oceanic islands where invasive species are a major threat for island biodiversity. Rats are one of the most detrimental of these and have been the target of numerous eradication programmes; a well-established conservation tool for island systems. For at-risk native spe...

1) Supplemental food is often provided to threatened species in order to maintain or enhance reproductive fitness and thus population growth. However, its impact on individual reproductive fitness is rarely evaluated, despite being associated with both positive and negative consequences. 2) We used stable isotope analyses to characterise the relati...

reintroductions worldwide

Supplemental food is often provided to threatened species in order to maintain or enhance reproductive fitness and thus population growth. However, its impact on individual reproductive fitness is rarely evaluated, despite being associated with both positive and negative consequences. We used stable isotope analyses to characterise the relative pro...

The endemic Mauritian flying fox Pteropus niger is perceived to be a major fruit pest. Lobbying of the Government of Mauritius by fruit growers to control the flying fox population resulted in national culls in 2015 and 2016, with a further cull scheduled for 2018. A loss of c. 38,318 individuals has been reported and the species is now categorized...

Cambridge Core - Natural Resource Management, Agriculture, Horticulture and forestry - Species Conservation - edited by Jamieson A. Copsey

The Vulnerable (IUCN) Telfair’s skink (Leiolopisma telfairii) is the sole surviving member of a unique Mascarene genus of large, terrestrial and omnivorous lizards. Once widespread throughout Mauritius and offshore islands, Telfair’s skinks became restricted to Round Island (219 ha, 20 km northeast of Mauritius) from the mid-1800s, representing the...

When making decisions about reintroducing a species, practitioners need to consider whether the release site contains habitat suitable for those species, whether past extinction drivers have been remedied and whether reintroduction is the best option for the species to recolonize the release site. These concerns are captured within two paradigms; t...

Global-scale gene flow is an important concern in conservation biology as it has the potential to either increase or decrease genetic diversity in species and populations. Although many studies focus on the gene flow between different populations of a single species, the potential for gene flow and introgression between species is understudied, par...

Carl Jones had to invent an entirely new form of conservation when he went to Mauritius to save one of the world's most endangered birds

Tropical cyclones are renowned for their destructive nature and are an important feature of marine and coastal tropical ecosystems. Over the last 40 years, their intensity, frequency and tracks have changed, partly in response to ocean warming, and future predictions indicate that these trends are likely to continue with potential consequences for...

Invasive species are a major threat for island biodiversity, causing species decline and extinction globally. Of all invasive mammals rats are one of the most detrimental and have been the target of numerous control and eradication programmes. In Mauritius rats have contributed to the extinction of 50% of the island's fauna and are thought to be th...

Data S1. Methods. Fig. S1. Twelve year productivity data for Mauritius parakeets. Fig. S2. Prevalence of BFDV over the intensive sampling period. Table S1. Results of model averaged binomial GLM to predict hatch success among supplementary fed broods during the outbreak phase. Table S2. Predictors of individual BFDV infection status. Table S3....

Almost 90% of global bird extinctions have occurred on islands. The loss of endemic species from island systems can dramatically alter evolutionary trajectories of insular species biodiversity, resulting in a loss of evolutionary diversity important for species adaptation to changing environments. The Western Indian Ocean islands have been the scen...

Infectious diseases are widely recognized to have substantial impact on wildlife populations. These impacts are sometimes exacerbated in small endangered populations, and therefore, the success of conservation reintroductions to aid the recovery of such species can be seriously threatened by outbreaks of infectious disease. Intensive management str...

Many fragile ecosystems across the globe are islands with high numbers of endemic species. Most tropical islands have been subject to significant landscape alteration since human colonisation, with a consequent loss of both habitat and those specialist species unable to adapt or disperse in the face of rapid change. Day geckos (genus Phelsuma) are...

Responding to allospecific territorial signals may result in the unnecessary expenditure of energy and time and is therefore, in general, not adaptive. The signals of closely related species are often similar owing to common ancestry, especially when species evolve in allopatry. However, selection for species recognition in sympatry tends to result...

Fig. S1.Variation in Mauritius kestrel timing of breeding. Table S1. Models of breeding success with additional random effect structures. Table S2. Additional models of nest-scale success. Table S3. Additional models of breeding success (excluding failed breeding attempts). Table S4. Model of breeding success with site-specific gecko probability.

Habitat conversion for agriculture is a major driver of biodiversity loss, but our understanding of the demographic processes involved remains poor. We typically investigate the impacts of agriculture in isolation even though populations are likely to experience multiple, concurrent changes in the environment (e.g. land and climate change). Drivers...

Recent work suggests that the environment experienced in early life can alter life histories in wild populations [1-5], but our understanding of the processes involved remains limited [6, 7]. Since anthropogenic environmental change is currently having a major impact on wild populations [8], this raises the possibility that life histories may be in...

Abstract A major question in ecology is how age-specific variation in demographic parameters influences population dynamics. Based on long-term studies of growing populations of birds and mammals, we analyze population dynamics by using fluctuations in the total reproductive value of the population. This enables us to account for random fluctuation...

The extinction of large herbivores, often keystone species, can dramatically modify plant communities and impose key biotic thresholds that may prevent an ecosystem returning to its previous state and threaten native biodiversity. A potentially innovative, yet controversial, landscape-based long-term restoration approach is to replace missing plant...

Threatened populations of birds are often restored after bottleneck events by using reintroduction techniques. Whilst population numbers are often increased by using such measures, the long-term genetic effects of reintroductions and post-release management of the resulting populations are frequently overlooked. We identify an overall declining tre...

Abstract The giant African land snail (Achatina fulica) is one of the world’s worst invasive species, out‐competing endemic snails, consuming native vegetation and potentially altering nutrient cycles. Attempts to eradicate the snail from islands have only been successful with incipient populations. We present correlative evidence that native islan...

Dispersal is a key process in population and evolutionary ecology. Individual decisions are affected by fitness consequences of dispersal, but these are difficult to measure in wild populations. A long-term dataset on a geographically closed bird population, the Mauritius kestrel, offers a rare opportunity to explore fitness consequences. Females d...

The current paradigm for effective management in biodiversity conservation programmes is dominated by three broad streams of thinking: (i) traditional “command-and-control” approaches which are commonly observed in, but are not exclusive to, bureaucratic government-administered conservation, (ii) more recent notions of “adaptive management,” and (i...