Factors Affecting Survival of Mallard Ducklings in Southern Ontario

Hoekman, Steven T.; Gabor, T. Shane; Maher, Ron; Murkin, Henry R.; Armstrong, Llwellyn M.

doi:10.1650/7408

Cited by 32 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…Parental quality may not only be reflected in the effect of social factors like predator avoidance/defence and social competence for variation of reproductive success. High quality parents may also be able to produce larger clutches and to accumulate more resources more rapidly than low quality individuals which would allow an earlier nesting (Drent and Daan 1980) and thereby providing better growing conditions for the offspring (Hoekman et al 2004;Lepage et al 1998Lepage et al , 1999. Female egg investment may play an important role in determining survival prospects of offspring (Amat et al 2001) and thereby increasing individual fitness.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal clutch size decline and individual variation in the timing of breeding are related to female body condition in a non-migratory species, the Upland Goose Chloephaga picta leucoptera

Gladbach

Quillfeldt

2010

J Ornithol

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Several studies have shown that waterfowl females in good condition lay larger clutches and start egglaying earlier in a breeding season. However, most of these studies lack corresponding data on individual condition and timing of breeding in different years. We analysed data on clutch size, egg size, hatching date and female body condition of a non-migratory species, the Upland Goose Chloephaga picta leucoptera, recorded in three seasons on New Island, Falkand Islands. We found a strong seasonal decline in both egg and clutch size. Egg size increased with clutch size. The mean egg volume and total clutch volume increased with female body condition and hatching date was earlier for females in higher body condition. Chicks hatched from nests with higher mean egg volume had higher early body condition. We also compared individual females between different study years and found that individual body condition showed a significant repeatability between years, whereas hatching date did not. While female aging did not systematically affect hatching date, females produced clutches that hatched earlier in years of higher body condition. We could thus show for the first time that the frequently reported negative relationship between female condition and hatching date also holds true on an individual basis. To our knowledge, this is the first study on seasonal clutch size decline in sheldgeese and one of a few in waterfowl comparing condition and timing of breeding within individuals between different years.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal clutch size decline and individual variation in the timing of breeding are related to female body condition in a non-migratory species, the Upland Goose Chloephaga picta leucoptera

Gladbach

Quillfeldt

2010

J Ornithol

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“…Dzus and Clark 1998;Hoekman et al 2004;Krapu et al 2000;Rotella and Ratti 1992a). Indeed, most of the observational studies come from the North American prairies, where seasonal wetlands (i.e.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yet, this should not cause any bias in the comparison between early-hatched and latehatched ducklings in our experiment. On the contrary, brood movements and overland travel in particular may be a severe confounding factor in observational studies done in prairie areas dominated by seasonal wetlands; movements may increase as seasonal wetlands dry up with time, thereby increasing predation risk (see discussion in Hoekman et al 2004). Our experiment was designed to control for this problem and helped in studying the timing hypothesis per se.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Sjöberg

Gunnarsson

Pöysä³

et al. 2010

Eur J Wildl Res

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Two main hypotheses proposed to explain the seasonal decline in reproductive performance in birds are (1) deterioration of environmental conditions and (2) lower parental quality of late breeders. Previous experimental work addressing these hypotheses generally have problematic biases pertaining to delay of hatching, costs of re-laying and incubation, as well as variation in the quality of eggs, territories, offspring and parental traits. We address these biases in an experimental test of the timing hypothesis (i.e.(1) above) in a precocial bird. Using a 2-year cross-over design and game-farm mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) eggs originating from a number of hens and a standardised delay procedure, we introduced early and late broods with a foster female onto boreal oligotrophic lakes and monitored subsequent duckling survival. Standardised invertebrate sampling was done concurrently to get a measure of lake-level abundance of aquatic prey, a likely causative agent of putative seasonal difference in duckling survival. Survival data and covariates (duckling age; days) were analysed by an information theoretic approach. There was no effect of treatment (i.e. manipulation of hatching date) on duckling survival, which was higher in 2005 than in 2004. In contrast to observational studies from more seasonal wetlands, our experiment demonstrates that duckling survival on boreal lakes was not affected by a 12-day delay in hatching date. Since we did not find any consistent trends in abundance of aquatic prey, i.e. neither clear peaks nor differences between treatment periods, we hypothesise that moderate climate change has minor effects on resource abundance and hence also on mallard duckling survival in boreal environments.

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“…Brood mortality and complete loss of sharp-tailed grouse broods was greatest during the first 7 days post-hatching during the first 7 days, accounting for 42% of total brood loss from hatching to independence (Haulton 1999). Similarly, 77% of mortality of mallard broods occurred before 8 days of age, and daily survival rates of broods were 8 times greater for broods older than 7 days compared to broods less than 1 week old (Hoekman et al 2004). High mortality rates during the first 2 weeks of age are common in precocial species.…”

Section: Chick Survivalmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Although little information exists regarding the factors affecting survival of precocial offspring, largely because of the difficulty in accurately measuring survival of chicks and determining sources of mortality in secretive and mobile species (Johnson et al 1992, Rotella andRatti 1992), survival is often most influenced by 3 factors: (1) chilling from inclement weather or poor female attentiveness; (2) predation; and (3) starvation (Bergerud 1988a, Johnson et al 1992, Hoekman et al 2004). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reproductive success and habitat selection of sharp-tailed grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus) in the Peace River region, northeast British Columbia.

Goddard¹

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Factors Affecting Survival of Mallard Ducklings in Southern Ontario

Cited by 32 publications

References 50 publications

Seasonal clutch size decline and individual variation in the timing of breeding are related to female body condition in a non-migratory species, the Upland Goose Chloephaga picta leucoptera

Seasonal clutch size decline and individual variation in the timing of breeding are related to female body condition in a non-migratory species, the Upland Goose Chloephaga picta leucoptera

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

Reproductive success and habitat selection of sharp-tailed grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus) in the Peace River region, northeast British Columbia.

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