Modelling Sex Ratio and Numbers for Translocation in Meta-Population Management

Abstract

The management of endangered species as metapopulations is becoming increasingly common. Diverse aspects of metapopulation dynamics and management have received attention in recent years. In particular, translocation of individuals between subpopulations of a metapopulation is practiced, or envisaged, for a variety of reasons and requires careful consideration. Linklater (2003) proposed that the number of individuals of each sex translocated into a target population for the purposes of maintaining genetic diversity could be chosen on the basis of parental investment theory. In this paper, following basic ideas in the parental investment literature, I propose a simple model to capture Linklater's proposal and provide a thorough mathematical analysis of the model. Granted the necessary species-specific biological information which would determine the model parameters in any instance of application, the analysis indicates that a practical algorithm can be constructed to generate the model's predictions for the optimal translocation.