Mallard Satellite Telemetry

Mallards are an abundant species of duck and widely distributed across North America.  In recent years, there has been much interest in the development of a large-scale study of mallard movements, distributions and habitat use in mid-continent North America using solar-powered GPS satellite transmitters.  Such a large-scale study would provide an unprecedented evaluation of how ducks use the habitats that have been restored, protected and maintained for waterfowl under continental habitat conservation programs, including the North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP).  

Our partners in this effort include Ducks Unlimited, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Science Support Team of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan, and a host of state and provincial wildlife agencies and their waterfowl biologists.   The ultimate goal of the project is to further our understanding of how changes in waterfowl distributions relate to contemporary changes in landscapes and the environment, which ultimately will improve the design, coordination, and implementation of future conservation strategies not only for waterfowl, but for many species that depend on wetland ecosystems.

LRWC is the coordinating agency for the initial phases of this project, which involves testing the transmitters, designing the harness attachment, and developing the field methods and study design.  To date, much of the preliminary work for this project has focused on using captive birds at LRWC to evaluate how different models of transmitters perform when placed on the back of a duck.  If you visited our aviary in 2009, you might have noticed the antennas protruding off the backs of several of our mallards and black ducks.  Although our Avicuturist Ian Gereg jokingly refers to these as our “remote-controlled birds”, these birds are actually providing us with valuable information about how well the latest models of solar-powered GPS satellite transmitters work when attached to a live duck.  You also might have noticed several plastic boxes mounted on milk crates scattered about the aviaries.  These boxes also contain transmitters, which are used to generate control data for comparison with the data from the transmitters on live birds.

LRWC ducks sport the lates model of satellite transmitter.

Mallard ducks with satellite transmitters.

Satellite transmitter in a control test box.

This summer we will be continuing our work with captive mallards.  Tentative plans are for a limited release of transmitters on wild mallards in fall of 2010, at which time we will be finalizing the proposal for the large-scale study.

For information on the mallard satellite telemetry project, contact ssheaffer@lrwc.net.

 

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