Seasonality, Social Structure and Age Predict Conspecific Aggression in Captive Breeding Southern Ground-Hornbills...

Southern Ground-hornbills (SGHs) are listed as Vulnerable globally, and Endangered in South Africa, Namibia and Swaziland, due to poisoning, habitat loss and persecution. Successful conservation breeding and rearing of redundant second-hatched chick protocol has been established to supplement natural SGH populations in an attempt mitigate a declining population. However, captive rearing is costly and susceptible to loss of birds through conspecific aggression. Maximising the efficacy of reproductive output in captive settings and ensuring successful reintroductions of captive-reared birds to wild populations is of paramount importance if this species is to persist. Therefore, it is important to untangle the predictors of what drives mortalities in captive birds, particularly, through conspecific aggression. Using a database of captive SGH mortalities collected over 46 years we investigated whether variables such as season, age, relatedness, sex and husbandry predicted the occurrence of conspecific aggression in SGH. Aggression among adult, non-related birds particularly during SGH breeding season (austral spring) was the most predictable form of conspecific aggression. It was inferred that aggression is normally directed at non-related birds outside of already established social groups or at younger, related birds that are not dispersing from groups when reaching sexual maturity. Variables such as season, age, relatedness and husbandry were therefore all useful for predicting the potential and avoidable occurrence of an aggression event. Male birds were most often the aggressors. Making use of such variables to manage birds in a captive setting, move birds before sexual maturity and maintaining birds in known and accepted social structures could greatly improve management in SGH breeding facilities and optimise the efforts for re-establishing natural SGH populations.