Use artificial visual and auditory stimuli to induce breeding in wild populations

Overall effectiveness category Unknown effectiveness (limited evidence)
Number of studies: 1
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How is the evidence assessed?

Effectiveness

19%
Certainty

11%
Harms

0%

Calculating overall effectiveness category

Background information and definitions

Some species that nest in colonies may require a ‘critical mass’ of individuals to be present before breeding behaviour is stimulated. If this is the case, it might be possible to help very small populations (beneath this threshold) to breed by using decoys and vocalisations to stimulate courtship behaviours.

Study locations

Key messages

A single small study from the British Virgin Islands found that there was an increase in breeding behaviour in a small population of Caribbean flamingos Phoenicopterus ruber following the introduction of visual and auditory stimulants.

About key messages

Key messages provide a descriptive index to studies we have found that test this intervention.

Studies are not directly comparable or of equal value. When making decisions based on this evidence, you should consider factors such as study size, study design, reported metrics and relevance of the study to your situation, rather than simply counting the number of studies that support a particular interpretation.

Supporting evidence from individual studies

A small before-and-after study in the British Virgin Islands, Caribbean in 1992 (O\'Connell-Rodwell et al. 2004) found there was an increase in group display and nest-building behaviour in a population of six (two females, four males) Caribbean flamingos Phoenicopterus ruber, following the introduction of ten life-sized flamingo decoys, eight artificially constructed mud nests (some with artificial eggs) and the playback of recordings of display vocalisations (3.6% of behavioural records in the two weeks after stimuli introduction were related to group display vs. no records in 12 hours before stimuli introduction).
Study and other actions tested
Referenced paper
O'Connell-Rodwell C.E., Rojek N., Rodwell T.C. & Shannon P.W. (2004) Artificially induced group display and nesting behaviour in a reintroduced population of Caribbean flamingo Phoenicopterus ruber ruber. Bird Conservation International, 14, 55-62.

Please cite as:

Williams, D.R., Child, M.F., Dicks, L.V., Ockendon, N., Pople, R.G., Showler, D.A., Walsh, J.C., zu Ermgassen, E.K.H.J. & Sutherland, W.J. (2020) Bird Conservation. Pages 137-281 in: W.J. Sutherland, L.V. Dicks, S.O. Petrovan & R.K. Smith (eds) What Works in Conservation 2020. Open Book Publishers, Cambridge, UK.

Where has this evidence come from?

List of journals searched by synopsis

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This Action forms part of the Action Synopsis:

Bird Conservation

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