Effects of Habitat on Mallard Duckling Survival in the Great Lakes Region

Abstract

Habitat provides food and shelter resources for prefledgling waterfowl and thus plays a critical role in their growth, development, and survival. However, few studies have examined whether and how particular elements of habitat affect duckling survival. We investigated relationships of duckling survival rates with distance of overland travel, wetland vegetation composition, water permanency, and surrounding upland vegetation for 116 mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) broods in the Great Lakes region from 2001 to 2003. We found that the probability, on hatch day, that a mallard duckling will survive to 55 days was positively related to the proportion of wetland area that was vegetated and negatively related to the proportion of forest cover within 500 m of duckling locations. We found little support for relationships between duckling survival rates and the proportions of grasslands or seasonal wetlands or to distances traveled overland by broods. Our results suggest that conservation groups and wildlife managers in the Great Lakes region can improve mallard duckling survival rates by managing for, creating, and protecting vegetated wetlands and focusing efforts within lightly‐forested areas.

Born to cope with climate change? Experimentally manipulated hatching time does not affect duckling survival in the mallard Anas platyrhynchos

“…For example, Cox et al (1998) found that growth of young mallard ducklings was sensitive to variation in food invertebrate abundance and that duckling survival, in turn, was positively related to growth. In addition to food limitation, oligotrophic lakes in boreal environments have sparse emergent vegetation (Kauppinen and Väisänen 1993), and this may adversely affect mallard duckling survival by decreased thermoregulation during inclement weather or by providing less cover from predators Koskimies and Lahti 1964;Rhymer 1988;Simpson et al 2007;Stafford and Pearse 2007). Although we do not know the ultimate fate of the ducklings in our study, predation likely had an additive effect on mortality (cf.…”

Population Dynamics of Breeding Mallards in the Great Lakes States

“…We typically monitored females daily throughout the breeding season to estimate survival of adult females, nests, and ducklings, as well as breeding incidence, nesting effort, and clutch size. For detailed information on study sites, field methods, and estimates, see Simpson et al (2005Simpson et al ( , 2007 and Simpson (2005). We determined female age by removing the greater secondary covert from the right wing of decoy-trapped adult females.…”

Influence of Weather, Wetland Availability, and Mallard Abundance on Productivity of Great Lakes Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos)

“…Variation in water levels across the GLS has been linked to climatic change at multiple scales (Keough et al 1999). Recent climate change models predict areas of the upper Midwest are likely to experience dryer and hotter summers (Hayhoe et al 2009), which could lead to poorer quality habitat through decreased water depth and consequently altered emergent vegetation patterns (Cowardin et al 1988;Simpson et al 2007) thus limiting resources for the breeding season potentially leading to decreased breeding populations of mallards (Sorensen et al 1998).…”