Fig 1.
General location of the study sites.
We reintroduced 31 juvenile Chinese giant salamanders in two rivers within the Qinling Mountains in central China. Details of reintroduction locations are not displayed so as to protect released animals from possible disturbance or poaching.
Table 1.
Model selection results for survival analysis of captive-reared Chinese giant salamanders reintroduced in two rivers in the Qinling Mountains, Shaanxi Province, China, 2013–2014.
Fig 2.
Survival rate estimates from MARK of reintroduced salamanders over one year.
Salamanders reintroduced to the Heihe River (A) had a lower annual survival estimate than salamanders reintroduced to the Donghe River (B).
Fig 3.
Survival probability of reintroduced salamanders increased as they were held longer from surgery to release.
Combining the two groups of salamanders, analysis in MARK indicated that the number of days held from surgery to release was important to increase post-release survival of reintroduced salamanders.
Table 2.
Biometric measurements (Mean ± SE) of recaptured Chinese giant salamanders (n = 8) at the beginning and the end of the study.
Fig 4.
Comparison of body mass and total body length between reintroduced salamanders and their conspecifics in captivity.
(A) Body mass comparison. (B) Total body length comparison. The 16 salamanders reintroduced to the Donghe River were from a group of salamanders whose growth was monitored since 2012. They were compared with salamanders that remained in captivity during the entire study period (November 2012–June 2014). Plotted values are means ± 1 SE; ** indicates different values between the two groups at that particular time interval (P < 0.01); numbers in parentheses indicate sample size.
Fig 5.
Change in body condition of reintroduced salamanders, compared to wild-caught conspecifics.
(A) Salamanders reintroduced at the Heihe River. (B) Salamanders reintroduced at the Donghe River. The regression line: log[Mass] = -2.039+2.920*log[TBL] (R2 = 0.98, P < 0.001) was constructed using data obtained from previously published papers, indicating body condition of wild-caught giant salamanders [20]. A dot above the regression line indicates that this animal has better body condition than wild salamanders with the same total body length, whereas a dot under the regression line indicates a worse body condition.