Overland travel, food abundance, and wetland use by mallards: relationships with offspring survival

We monitored wetland habitat use and inter-wetland moves of 52 Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) broods near Yorkton, Saskatchewan. Brood-attending females were equipped with radio transmitters and their locations monitored daily. Duckling survival in the first two weeks after hatching was not related to distance traveled to the first wetland nor the total distance traveled overland in the 14-day period. Brood-rearing females were found on one to five wetlands in the first week after hatch (mode = 2), and most (17 of 32) remained on one wetland in the second week (range = 1-5). Broods were found most frequently (69-95% of days) on semi-permanent wetlands. Conductivity on most (>95%) of these wetlands was
Mallard broods typically use several wetlands during the brood-rearing period, but causes and consequences of these moves remain unresolved. Early studies of wetland use by Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) relied on [...]