Artificially incubate and hand-rear gamebirds in captivity

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

Effectiveness

11%
Certainty

10%
Harms

50%

Calculating overall effectiveness category

Background information and definitions

Artificial incubation involves removing eggs from incubating parents and using an incubator to hatch them. Techniques can be extremely complex, with precision humidity and temperature control and turning of the eggs to ensure correct development Hand-rearing can be used with chicks from artificially-incubated eggs or with chicks removed from parents after hatching and involves manually feeding chicks until independence. Both techniques can be used to encourage parents to produce more offspring, or when naturally-raised chicks and eggs have low survival.

Study locations

Key messages

A single, replicated study in Finland found that hand-reared grey partridges Perdix perdix did not take off to fly as effectively as wild-caught birds, potentially making them more vulnerable to predation from ground predators.

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 replicated ex situ study in 1993 and 1994 in Finland (Putaala et al. 1997) found that hand-reared grey partridges Perdix perdix took flight with a shallower take off angle (average of 31^o tested on 12 birds) and climbed more slowly (climbing rate of 1.8 m/s for 11 birds) than wild-caught birds (average 44^o for 19 birds tested and 2.7 m/s for 18 birds), potentially making them more vulnerable to predation from ground predators.
Study and other actions tested
Referenced paper
Putaala A., Oksa J., Rintamaki H. & Hissa R. (1997) Effects of hand-rearing and radio-transmitters on flight of gray partridge. Journal of Wildlife Management, 61, 1345-1351.

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

All the journals searched for all synopses

This Action forms part of the Action Synopsis:

Bird Conservation

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