Survival in Wood Duck Broods

McGilvrey, Frank B.

doi:10.2307/3799651

Cited by 17 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Contrary to the southern breeding range, we did not find evidence of a relationship with hatch date or mass. Patterns in habitat selection were consistent with previous research that identified use of woody or dense vegetative cover (McGilvrey , Sousa and Farmer , Smith and Flake , Granfors and Flake , Davis et al ). Brood and duckling survival may limit recruitment at our northern study area and additional data collection is required to support life‐cycle analysis (Coluccy et al , Davis et al ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

“…Consistent with other wood duck research, females selected dense (e.g., monoculture and emergent wetlands) and woody (e.g., forested and scrub shrub) vegetation (McGilvrey , Hepp and Hair , Dugger and Fredrickson ). The juxtaposition and interspersion of these land cover types were also important; our results indicated that wood ducks moved among these land cover types to satisfy brood‐rearing requirements.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 57%

“…Wood ducks commonly use dense vegetative cover for foraging, loafing, predator avoidance, and thermoregulation (Hepp and Hair , Bellrose and Holm , Granfors and Flake , Baldassarre ). Ephemeral wetlands provide a food base (McGilvrey , Hepp and Hair , Drobney and Fredrickson , Davis et al ) and riparian areas provide movement corridors between a variety of habitat types necessary for wood duck ducklings (Hepp and Hair , Bellrose and Holm ).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Survival and habitat selection of wood duck ducklings

Dyson¹,

Schummer

Barney

et al. 2018

J Wildl Manag

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Survival and habitat selection during brood‐rearing influences reproductive success and waterfowl population dynamics. For effective management, it is important to understand vital rates and habitat choice range wide. We investigated survival and habitat selection of female wood ducks (Aix sponsa) and ducklings at Long Point, Lake Erie, Ontario, Canada in 2014. We captured incubating females (n = 40) in nest boxes and used radio‐telemetry to monitor survival and habitat use to 30 days post‐hatch. Four female mortalities occurred during brood‐rearing and apparent brood and duckling survival were 0.42 (85% CI = 0.33, 0.51) and 0.16 (85% CI = 0.14, 0.18), respectively. Duckling survival was negatively associated with brood size and distance of first movement, whereas survival was positively associated with precipitation. Successful brood‐rearing wood ducks selected forested wetlands and habitats that provided dense vegetative cover. Conservation and restoration of forested wetlands and similar cover should increase the availability of brood‐rearing habitat. Placement of nest boxes close to selected land cover types and strategies associated with reducing inflated clutch sizes may improve offspring survival. Our spatially explicit habitat selection model informs spatial prioritization of habitat conservation and nest box placement strategies within the Great Lakes region. © 2018 The Wildlife Society.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 57%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Survival and habitat selection of wood duck ducklings

Dyson¹,

Schummer

Barney

et al. 2018

J Wildl Manag

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“…A possible explanation for this observation is that ducklings incubated at warmer temperatures mature muscles important for locomotor performance earlier in life compared with those incubated at lower temperatures. If so, achieving faster velocities earlier in life could be important to duckling survival as most prefledge brood mortality (86–91%) occurs within the first 2 weeks of nest exodus (McGilvrey, '69). Conducting performance trials at earlier ages (<14 dph) may provide a more comprehensive understanding of the influence of incubation temperature on development of locomotor skills in precocial birds.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Incubation temperature influences locomotor performance in young wood ducks (Aix sponsa)

et al. 2011

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Incubation temperature is an important maternal effect in birds that can influence numerous offspring traits. For example, ducklings from eggs incubated at lower temperatures have lower growth rates, protein content, and are in poorer body condition than ducklings from eggs incubated at higher temperatures. Based on these observations, we predicted that incubation temperature would indirectly influence performance through its direct effects on body size. Wood duck (Aix sponsa) eggs were incubated at three ecologically relevant temperatures (35, 35.9, 37°C). After hatching, all ducklings were housed under identical conditions and were subjected to aquatic and terrestrial racing trials at 15 and 20 days posthatch (dph). Contrary to our prediction, incubation temperature did not influence most duckling body size parameters at 15 or 20 dph. However, incubation temperature did have a strong influence on locomotor performance independent of body size and body condition. Ducklings hatched from eggs incubated at the lowest temperature had significantly reduced maximum aquatic swim velocity than ducklings from higher temperatures. Maximum terrestrial sprint velocity followed a similar pattern, but did not differ statistically among incubation treatments. To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate that slight changes in incubation temperature can directly affect locomotor performance in avian offspring and thus provide a significant source of phenotypic variation in natural wood duck populations.

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“…When this happens, even for a short amount of time, behavior can be crucial for duckling survival. Duckling behavior is especially crucial when they are very young because almost 50% of ducklings die before fledging, and 90% of those mortalities occur within the first two weeks of life (McGilvrey, ). Especially relevant to this work, female ducklings hatching from eggs artificially incubated at low temperatures experienced lower apparent survival to recruitment into the breeding population than ducklings incubated as eggs at higher temperatures (Hepp & Kennamer, ), which we hypothesize may be due in part to differences in behavior.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 93%

Incubation temperature influences the behavioral traits of a young precocial bird

et al. 2018

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The environment in which animals develop can have important consequences for their phenotype. In reptiles, incubation temperature is a critical aspect of the early developmental environment. Incubation temperature influences morphology, physiology, and behavior of non-avian reptiles, however, little is known about how incubation temperature influences offspring phenotype and behaviors important to avian survival. To investigate whether incubation temperature influences avian behaviors, we collected wood duck (Aix sponsa) eggs from the field and incubated them at three naturally occurring incubation temperatures (35.0, 35.8, and 37.0°C). We conducted multiple repeated behavioral trials on individual ducklings between 5 and 15 days post-hatch to assess activity, exploratory, and boldness behaviors, classified along a proactive-reactive continuum. We measured growth rates and circulating levels of baseline and stress-induced corticosterone levels to investigate possible physiological correlates of behavior. Ducklings incubated at the lowest temperature displayed more proactive behaviors than those incubated at the two higher temperatures. We also found that younger ducklings exhibited more proactive behavior than older ducklings and males exhibited more proactive behavior than females. Further, duckling behaviors were repeatable across time and contexts, indicative of a proactive-reactive continuum of behavioral tendencies. However, neither corticosterone levels nor growth rates were related to behavior. This provides some of the first evidence that incubation temperature, a critical parental effect, influences avian offspring behaviors that may be important for survival. Our results identify incubation temperature as a mechanism that contributes to the development of behavioral traits and, in part, explains how multiple behavioral types may be maintained within populations.

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Survival in Wood Duck Broods

Cited by 17 publications

References 4 publications

Survival and habitat selection of wood duck ducklings

Survival and habitat selection of wood duck ducklings

Incubation temperature influences locomotor performance in young wood ducks (Aix sponsa)

Incubation temperature influences the behavioral traits of a young precocial bird

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