A Population Viability Assessment (PVA) workshop was held in Melbourne in May, 1990, to demonstrate its potential to wildlife managers by applying PVA to six species of threatened wildlife in Victoria. The workshop ran for one week and involved 32 participants, who worked in teams. The computer program VORTEX was used to simulate population behaviour resulting from random demographic, genetic and environmental variation, and catastrophic events. VORTEX runs on an MS-DOS microcomputer, and Toshiba laptop microcomputers plus printers and plotters were used. Simulations were run and analysis of results completed in the week following the workshop. PVA results were used to set management goals and strategies for the species examined. PVA is a useful tool for the management of threatened species for which there are adequate population data, and regular application of the technique is likely in the future. The workshop proved a useful way to demonstrate and apply Population Viability Assessment in a relatively short period of time.
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Research-Article|
March 17 2014
Report of a workshop on population viability assessment as a tool for threatened species management and conservation
Tim Clark;
Tim Clark
1
Department of Conservation Biology, Chicago Zoological Society, Brookfield, Illinois, USA 60513
2
School of Foresty and Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA 06511
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Gary Backhouse;
Gary Backhouse
3
Department of Conservation and Environment, Wildlife Management Branch, P.O. Box 137, Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia 3084
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Robert Lacy
Robert Lacy
1
Department of Conservation Biology, Chicago Zoological Society, Brookfield, Illinois, USA 60513
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Australian Zoologist (1991) 27 (1-2): 28–35.
Citation
Tim Clark, Gary Backhouse, Robert Lacy; Report of a workshop on population viability assessment as a tool for threatened species management and conservation. Australian Zoologist 1 June 1991; 27 (1-2): 28–35. doi: https://doi.org/10.7882/AZ.1991.004
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