T he threats to biodiversity resulting from human activities, and the understandable
reluctance to perturb their study subject, often prevent ecologists from developing their own …

The papers that follow in this special issue reflect the state of knowledge and theory in the
fields of animal welfare and conservation behavior. A particular focus is placed on how …

The quality of a bird's breeding site is a primary determinant of its success or failure to
reproduce there. We expect birds to devote considerable effort to acquiring accurate …

Feeding stations are commonly used to sustain conservation programs of scavengers but
their impact on behaviour is still debated. They increase the temporal and spatial …

Reintroductions are often used for reestablishment of animal populations. The choice of age‐
class of released individuals, however, is often arbitrary or based on expediency. We …

The main objective of many conservation programs is to increase population size by
improving a species' survival and reproduction. However, density dependence of …

The remnant wild population of California Condors (Gymnogyps californianus) of the 1980s
exhibited a rapid population decline caused by high mortality rates among adult and …

The translocation of animal species, that is the transfer of individuals from a source
population to a release area to restock, is a widespread practice in conservation biology and …

Analysis of factors influencing the success or failure of translocation programmes is crucial
to understand broadly the process of establishment of new populations (Seddon et al., 2007) …

Understanding patterns of differential extinction and predicting the relative risks of extinction
among extant species are among the most important problems in conservation biology …