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Mallard brood movements in the Canadian prairie parklands / Garnet H. Raven, Todd W. Arnold, David W. Howerter, and Llwellyn M. Armstrong.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextSeries: Prairie Naturalist. 39(1) 1-13 Publication details: 2007.Description: illustrations ; 28 cmLOC classification:
  • RAV
Online resources: Summary: We radi ot'racked 308 mallard (Anus plo~vrhynchos) broods from hatch ing unt il 30 days of age on 15 study a reas located throughout the Canadian Prairie Park lands to examine patterns of vari ation in movement frequency and distance. Broods moved an average of 350 m from nests to li rst wetlands (SD = 390). with 94% oC broods moving less than I kql. After leavi ng the nest. broods had a 23% probability of mov ing to a new wetland each day, but movement probabi lity was a complex fun ction of study area, hatch date. and ducking age, with younger and earli er-hatched broods exhibiting greater movement rates than older and later-ha tched broods. Late r-hatched broods moved fa rther than ea rlierhatched broods and movement d ista nce also varied among study areas. Local \vet land characteri stics exp lained some of the among-site variation in movement rates and distances. with movement probabi lity being most strongly correlated with average size of semipermanent wetlands and movement d istance being most strongly corre lated with total acreage of seasona l wetlands. After 30 days, broods were l o~ated an average of 760 m (SD = 610) from the ir nests, with 9Y% or a ll surviving broods located less than 2 km from their nests. Our data illustrated the need ro r suitable brood-reari ng wetlands with in a reasonable distance (e.g., < 0.5 km) of waterfmvl nesting cover.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 12-13).

We radi ot'racked 308 mallard (Anus plo~vrhynchos) broods from
hatch ing unt il 30 days of age on 15 study a reas located throughout the Canadian
Prairie Park lands to examine patterns of vari ation in movement frequency and
distance. Broods moved an average of 350 m from nests to li rst wetlands (SD =
390). with 94% oC broods moving less than I kql. After leavi ng the nest. broods
had a 23% probability of mov ing to a new wetland each day, but movement
probabi lity was a complex fun ction of study area, hatch date. and ducking age, with
younger and earli er-hatched broods exhibiting greater movement rates than older
and later-ha tched broods. Late r-hatched broods moved fa rther than ea rlierhatched
broods and movement d ista nce also varied among study areas. Local
\vet land characteri stics exp lained some of the among-site variation in movement
rates and distances. with movement probabi lity being most strongly correlated with
average size of semipermanent wetlands and movement d istance being most
strongly corre lated with total acreage of seasona l wetlands. After 30 days, broods
were l o~ated an average of 760 m (SD = 610) from the ir nests, with 9Y% or a ll
surviving broods located less than 2 km from their nests. Our data illustrated the
need ro r suitable brood-reari ng wetlands with in a reasonable distance (e.g., < 0.5
km) of waterfmvl nesting cover.

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