Ardea
Official journal of the Netherlands Ornithologists' Union

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Baillie S.R. (2001) The contribution of ringing to the conservation and management of bird populations: A review. ARDEA 89 (1): 167-184
Wildlife conservationists and managers must address a wide range of issues relating to bird populations including sustainable management of the wider countryside, the protection of individual sites and site networks and properly planned species recovery. Sound approaches to these problems need to be based on a good understanding of the population processes involved. Much of the research that provides such understanding is based on ringing, which is used to measure many aspects of avian demography, particularly survival rates, recruitment and dispersal. Ringing studies have allowed the demographic causes of population declines to be identified, providing indications and tests of their environmental causes. Spatial population modelling, supported by good empirical data on dispersal, has the potential to contribute to both species and landscape conservation. The success of rehabilitation and reintroduction programmes can often be evaluated from studies of marked birds. Descriptions of patterns of movements from an essential part of the information required to manage flyway populations and site networks. Ringing is also a key component of research into the effects of hunting because it can be used to measure both harvest and survival rates. The control of gull populations illustrates the application of population dynamics principles to reduce population size. The contribution of ringing to conservation science during the 21st century can be enhanced by using information technology to improve the use of existing information and data, by undertaking more long-term monitoring and through giving careful attention to the design of research projects


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