Home-Range Characteristics, Age, Body Size, and Breeding Performance of Female Mallards (Anas Platyrhynchos)

• Published in: The Auk Vol. 123; no. 2; pp. 467 - 474
• Main Authors: Mack, Glenn G., Clark, Robert G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.04.2006
• ISSN: 0004-8038; 1938-4254
• DOI: 10.1093/auk/123.2.467

Abstract Understanding reproductive and survival consequences of space use is of general interest to ecologists and vital to successful conservation planning. Hypothesized effects of home-range habitat composition and female attributes on these vital rates have not been adequately evaluated in breeding female Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos). Thus, we investigated reproductive and survival consequences of home-range variability and individual characteristics for 126 female Mallards studied on 12 study areas in the Canadian prairie parklands, 1995–1998. We used nine variables to discriminate between three reproductive categories (females that did not nest, nested but failed, or nested successfully) and two survival categories (killed by predator and survived the nesting season). Discriminant function analysis separated females that nested successfully from those that did not, with successful females having higher percentages of wood-shrub and planted grass habitat within their home ranges, a lower percentage of seasonal and semipermanent wetlands, smaller home-range sizes, and a higher percentage of wetlands at the study-area scale. We also distinguished females that did not nest from failed nesters; females that did not nest were younger and smaller and had larger home-range sizes, with a higher percentage of seasonal and semipermanent wetlands. Females that were killed did not differ from nesting-season survivors of either individual or home-range characteristics. Características del Rango de Hogar, Edad, Tamaño Corporal y Desempeño Reproductivo de las Hembras en Anas platyrhynchos