Conservation breeding for reintroductions: assessing survival in a captive flock of houbara bustards

Published source details van Heezik Y. & Ostrowski S. (2001) Conservation breeding for reintroductions: assessing survival in a captive flock of houbara bustards. Animal Conservation, 4, 195-201.
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This study is summarised as evidence for the following.

	Action	Category
	Artificially incubate and hand-rear bustards in captivity Action Link
	Use captive breeding to increase or maintain populations of bustards Action Link

Artificially incubate and hand-rear bustards in captivity

A review (van Heezik & Ostrowski 2001) of the same programme as Seddon et al. 1995 found that, between 1992 and 1999, there was no significant difference in survival between artificially incubated eggs and those hatched by parental incubation, once breeding experience of mothers, year of lay and the cohort of birds that the mother came from were taken into account. A total of 1,012 eggs were studied. This study is also discussed in ‘Use captive breeding to increase or maintain populations’.
Use captive breeding to increase or maintain populations of bustards

Another review (van Heezik & Ostrowski 2001) of the same project found that, between 1992 and 1999, 46% of 2,917 captive-laid eggs successfully hatched. Survival of 1,135 hatchlings to six months old was 75%, to three years, 69% and to ten years, 43%. Hatching failures were mainly caused by infertility and death during incubation, whilst mortality was caused mainly by trauma and disease. This study also describes the impact of artificial insemination and incubation, discussed in ‘Artificially incubate and hand-rear birds in captivity’.