Northern pintail brood ecology in cropland / by William J. Peterson.
Material type:
TextSeries: Thesis. (M.S.)Publication details: Baton Rouge, LA : Louisiana State University, 1999.Description: v, 42 p. : ill., 28 cmOnline resources: Summary: I studied northern pintail (Anas acuta) brood ecology in the cultivated prairies of southern Saskatchewan. The study was conducted from May through July in 1997 and 1998. Median brood hatch date was two weeks later in 1998. Brood, duckling, and overall survival estimates were 56%, 41%, and 73% in 1997, and 36%, 17%, and 55% in 1998, respectively.Higher survival in 1997 can likely be attributed to extremely abundant alternate prey for brood predators. Most duckling mortality occurred within 14 days of hatching. Broods were relatively sedentary and most remained within 2.0 km of their respective nest sites. Cumulative overland movement distance and hatch date did not influence survival estimates. Brood survival tended to decrease with increasing initial brood size. I assessed the influence of several wetland characteristics on the survival estimates. Brood survival was negatively correlated with wetland emergent vegetation cover but overall survival was positvely correlated with wetland emergent cover.Duckling survival was positively correlated with seasonal wetland use.None of the survival estimates were correlated with wetland density,average size, or average perimeter. I documented two cases of pintail brood amalgamation.
| Item type | Current library | Collection | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode |
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Theses
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Electronic Library | Non-fiction | PET (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | Available | 7333 |
Includes bibliographical references.
I studied northern pintail (Anas acuta) brood ecology in the cultivated prairies of southern Saskatchewan. The study was conducted from May through July in 1997 and 1998. Median brood hatch date was two weeks later in 1998. Brood, duckling, and overall survival estimates were 56%, 41%, and 73% in 1997, and 36%, 17%, and 55% in 1998, respectively.Higher survival in 1997 can likely be attributed to extremely abundant alternate prey for brood predators. Most duckling mortality occurred within 14 days of hatching. Broods were relatively sedentary and most remained within 2.0 km of their respective nest sites. Cumulative overland movement distance and hatch date did not influence survival estimates. Brood survival tended to decrease with increasing initial brood size. I assessed the influence of several wetland characteristics on the survival estimates. Brood survival was negatively correlated with wetland emergent vegetation cover but overall survival was positvely correlated with wetland emergent cover.Duckling survival was positively correlated with seasonal wetland use.None of the survival estimates were correlated with wetland density,average size, or average perimeter. I documented two cases of pintail brood amalgamation.