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Longevity and migration distance differ between wild and hand-reared mallards Anas platyrhynchos in Northern Europe

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Abstract

The mallard Anas platyrhynchos is the world’s most widespread and numerous dabbling duck. It is also farmed and released to the wild by the millions each year, but the effects of this on wild populations remain little studied. By using historical national ringing–recovery data from Sweden and Finland, we here address three predictions based on previous studies: (1) longevity is higher in wild than in hand-reared mallards, (2) wild mallards migrate longer than hand-reared, and (3) migration distance in wild ducks surviving long enough to start fall migration has decreased over the last 50 years. Indeed, wild mallards lived longer than hand-reared (19 versus 9 months in Swedish birds and 13 versus 4 months in Finnish birds). Compared to wild mallards, a smaller proportion of hand-reared birds survived long enough to have the chance to enter the wild breeding population; less than 25 % of the Swedish birds and less than 10 % of the Finnish birds lived a year or longer. Wild birds migrated farther than hand-reared (mean distance in Swedish birds, 676 versus 523 km; in Finnish birds, 1,213 versus 157 km), a pattern caused by both shorter life span and lower migration speed in hand-reared birds. Mean migration distance in wild Swedish mallards was 787 km in 1947–1972 but 591 km in 1977–1993. This difference was not statistically significant, though, possibly due to the limited sample size and lack of data from the last two decades. In general, our study provides a conservative test of the predictions addressed, calling for more research about the consequences of restocking duck populations.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully thank Henrik Svensson for help with the maps. This study was supported by grant V-205-09 from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. The Finnish Ringing Centre at the Natural History Museum (Helsinki, Finland) and The Bird Ringing Centre at The Swedish Museum of Natural History (Stockholm, Sweden) are gratefully acknowledged for access to data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Natural Sciences, Kristianstad University, SE- 291 88, Kristianstad, Sweden

    Pär Söderquist, Gunnar Gunnarsson & Johan Elmberg

  2. Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SE- 901 83, Umeå, Sweden

    Pär Söderquist

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  1. Pär Söderquist
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  2. Gunnar Gunnarsson
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  3. Johan Elmberg
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Correspondence to Pär Söderquist.

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Communicated by C. Gortázar

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Söderquist, P., Gunnarsson, G. & Elmberg, J. Longevity and migration distance differ between wild and hand-reared mallards Anas platyrhynchos in Northern Europe. Eur J Wildl Res 59, 159–166 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-012-0660-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-012-0660-0

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