Response to Strayer (2022)

It is more important than ever to ground debates on the risk of adverse, unintended consequences with relevant evidence. In our 2021 review of US conservation translocations spanning the past 125 years, we claimed an overwhelming majority of successfully established translocations were ecologically benign or beneficial (Novak et al., 2021). We found no evidence of the adverse unintended consequences so feared by many (e.g., Ricciardi & Simberloff, 2009). Strayer (2022), in critiquing our effort at data summary suggested that the evidence of widespread successful outcomes was weak and that our word choices insinuate that translocations have been more successful and subsequently more contributory to conservation goals than has been the case. We agree with Strayer it would be valuable to publish a thorough record of translocation success rates, but many factors make such an endeavor challenging (Novak et al., 2021). Moreover, this was not our intent. Our intent was to provide solid evidence to our claim that evidence of harm is lacking. In his critique, Strayer (2022) failed to provide a single case of a conservation translocation resulting in harm to an ecosystem to counter our findings.