Minimizing the cost of translocation failure with decision‐tree models that predict species’ behavioral response in translocation sites |
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Authors: | Mehregan Ebrahimi Esmaeil Ebrahimie C. Michael Bull |
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Affiliation: | 1. School of Biological Sciences, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia;2. Department of Biology, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Fars Province, Iran;3. Institute of Biotechnology, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Fars Province, Iran;4. School of Molecular and Biomedical Science, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia |
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Abstract: | The high number of failures is one reason why translocation is often not recommended. Considering how behavior changes during translocations may improve translocation success. To derive decision‐tree models for species’ translocation, we used data on the short‐term responses of an endangered Australian skink in 5 simulated translocations with different release conditions. We used 4 different decision‐tree algorithms (decision tree, decision‐tree parallel, decision stump, and random forest) with 4 different criteria (gain ratio, information gain, gini index, and accuracy) to investigate how environmental and behavioral parameters may affect the success of a translocation. We assumed behavioral changes that increased dispersal away from a release site would reduce translocation success. The trees became more complex when we included all behavioral parameters as attributes, but these trees yielded more detailed information about why and how dispersal occurred. According to these complex trees, there were positive associations between some behavioral parameters, such as fight and dispersal, that showed there was a higher chance, for example, of dispersal among lizards that fought than among those that did not fight. Decision trees based on parameters related to release conditions were easier to understand and could be used by managers to make translocation decisions under different circumstances. Minimizar el Costo del Fracaso de la Reubicación con Modelos de Árboles de Decisión que Predigan la Respuesta Conductual de la Especie en los Sitios de Reubicación |
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Keywords: | animal behavior decision tree species management the pygmy bluetongue lizard á rbol de decisió n comportamiento animal lagartija pigmea de lengua azul manejo de especies |
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