Abstract

Food is an important factor affecting survival in many bird species, but this relationship has rarely been explored experimentally with respect to reproductive output of precocial birds. In a field experiment we tested the hypothesis that food abundance limits reproductive output in breeding dabbling ducks. Onto 10 oligotrophic lakes in northern Sweden we introduced one wing-clipped female mallard (Anas platyrhynchos L., 1758) and a brood of 10 newly hatched ducklings, and survival was monitored for 24 days. Food was added ad libitum at five of the lakes, but not at the other five. Duckling survival was best modelled to include a treatment effect, with higher survival on lakes with food added, and a negative effect of harsh weather. As expected, duckling survival increased nonlinearly with age. Only one female remained on control lakes after 24 days, whereas four remained on lakes with food added. This is the first experimental demonstration that food may limit survival and reproductive output in breeding precocial birds. We argue that food limitation may be one reason why duckling mortality is high and why many lakes throughout the Holarctic have no breeding dabbling ducks

Published in

Canadian Journal of Zoology
2004, Volume: 82, number: 11, pages: 1698-1703
Publisher: NATL RESEARCH COUNCIL CANADA

SLU Authors

• Gunnarsson, Gunnar

  • Department of Animal Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Sjöberg, Kjell

  • Department of Animal Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1139/Z04-153

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/4452