Trapping Rates, Survival, and Habitat Selection for Wood Ducks in Central Wisconsin. Rush, K., K. Ph.D. Thesis, 2019. abstract bibtex Wood ducks are one the most common and studied waterfowl species in the Mississippi and Atlantic flyways. However, most research on breeding female populations comes from those nesting in artificial nest boxes. While this capture method might be relatively easy and efficient, it inherently eliminates, or at the very least, reduces the chances of studying wood ducks that nest in natural tree cavities. This seems problematic given most wood ducks do not nest in artificial boxes (Bellrose 1990) and natural cavity availability in the Upper Midwest is increasing annually (Denton et al. 2012). Therefore, my goal was to evaluate trapping wood ducks using decoy traps as an alternative method. I purchased, provided care for, and used 47 domesticated ‘decoy’ wood ducks in 2017 and 2018 at the Mead Wildlife Management Area (WMA) in central Wisconsin to catch wild pre-breeding female wood ducks. I also evaluated capture rates for baited traps and provided use rates for > 100 artificial next boxes that are managed by the Mead WMA staff. I captured females (n=27) in decoy traps in 2017 and 2018. Females were trapped at a rate of 0.08 birds/trap day in decoy traps both years, but I failed to catch any wood ducks in baited traps. I found that smaller decoys captured more wild females. Use rates of artificial nest boxes by wood ducks was 0.09 and 0.07 in 2017 and 2018, respectively, and were historically low. Domestic wood duck husbandry and health testing logistics can be a time and financial limitation. Decoy trapping was the most successful method for capturing pre-nesting wood ducks and the population of birds I captured from them represents a promising alternative to studying solely box-nesting populations.
@phdthesis{
title = {Trapping Rates, Survival, and Habitat Selection for Wood Ducks in Central Wisconsin},
type = {phdthesis},
year = {2019},
source = {Thesis},
pages = {76},
issue = {April},
institution = {University of Wisconsin},
department = {Natural Resources (Wildlife Ecology)},
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created = {2019-09-18T18:14:25.369Z},
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last_modified = {2019-09-18T18:14:31.690Z},
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abstract = {Wood ducks are one the most common and studied waterfowl species in the Mississippi and Atlantic flyways. However, most research on breeding female populations comes from those nesting in artificial nest boxes. While this capture method might be relatively easy and efficient, it inherently eliminates, or at the very least, reduces the chances of studying wood ducks that nest in natural tree cavities. This seems problematic given most wood ducks do not nest in artificial boxes (Bellrose 1990) and natural cavity availability in the Upper Midwest is increasing annually (Denton et al. 2012). Therefore, my goal was to evaluate trapping wood ducks using decoy traps as an alternative method. I purchased, provided care for, and used 47 domesticated ‘decoy’ wood ducks in 2017 and 2018 at the Mead Wildlife Management Area (WMA) in central Wisconsin to catch wild pre-breeding female wood ducks. I also evaluated capture rates for baited traps and provided use rates for > 100 artificial next boxes that are managed by the Mead WMA staff. I captured females (n=27) in decoy traps in 2017 and 2018. Females were trapped at a rate of 0.08 birds/trap day in decoy traps both years, but I failed to catch any wood ducks in baited traps. I found that smaller decoys captured more wild females. Use rates of artificial nest boxes by wood ducks was 0.09 and 0.07 in 2017 and 2018, respectively, and were historically low. Domestic wood duck husbandry and health testing logistics can be a time and financial limitation. Decoy trapping was the most successful method for capturing pre-nesting wood ducks and the population of birds I captured from them represents a promising alternative to studying solely box-nesting populations.},
bibtype = {phdthesis},
author = {Rush, Kaitlyn Kali}
}