Authors: Robinson, Theresa;

Current conservation research is insufficiently focused on designing and testing management interventions for species of conservation concern. Due to practical limitations and difficulties of experimenting on endangered populations, testing impacts of conservation interventions is frequently retrospective, and can be confounded by concurrent influences of natural background processes also impacting vital rates.

Here, we use long-term individual-based data on the endangered island endemic Mauritius Fody Foudia rubra, to explore the impacts of supplementary feeding on individual productivity. Our information-theoretic approach allows the impacts of this intervention to be separated from natural processes which also influence productivity for both sexes.

We establish that nesting frequently is a key component of individual productivity. We show that supplemental feeding increases productivity across a spatial gradient; individuals who have territories nearer feeding stations are able to nest more frequently than their more distant peers. This impact applies to both sexes, and regardless of mating strategy.

We show that long-term data on endangered species can be used to test the impact of management, and hence contribute to population recovery; and we recommend that a greater focus on conservation interventions can only be delivered if species recovery programmes invest in long-term monitoring which generates such data.