Provide supplementary water to increase survival or reproductive success
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Overall effectiveness category Unknown effectiveness (limited evidence)
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Number of studies: 1
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Effectiveness
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Supporting evidence from individual studies
A controlled, multi-year study between 1998 and 2002 in coastal semi-desert steppe in southern Morocco (Smith et al. 2008) found that northern bald ibis Geronticus eremite pairs nesting less than 1 km from supplementary water points had significantly higher reproductive success than pairs nesting more than 5 km from water points (all nests: 1.0-2.2 fledglings/nest for nests close to water vs. 0.37-1.6 fledglings/nest for distant nests; only successful nests: 1.3-2.4 fledglings/nest vs. 1.0-2.3 fledglings/nest). There were no differences in clutch size between treatments, so the authors suggest that differences in productivity were due to failure rates, with 11% of 105 nests close to water failing, compared to 38% of 74 nests far from water. The increase was greatest in years of low natural rainfall but apparent in all years.
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This Action forms part of the Action Synopsis:
Bird Conservation
Bird Conservation - Published 2013
Bird Synopsis