Direct and indirect effects of winter harshness on the survival of Mallards Anas platyrhynchos in northwest Europe

To understand population dynamics it is necessary to understand vital rates, which may be affected by a wide range of factors including environmental variables such as weather. Weather conditions can affect birds’ vital rates directly through increased mortality due to impaired conditions, or indirectly via changes in body condition and/or behaviour. Most understanding of direct and indirect effects of weather comes from studies of breeding birds, whereas the situation in non‐breeding periods is less clear. Here, we analysed annual survival of non‐breeding Mallard Anas platyrhynchos, the most hunted waterfowl species in Europe, and assessed whether survival is related directly to winter harshness and/or indirectly via changes in winter recovery distributions. Recovery data on Mallards, initially marked in southeast Sweden, were analysed with an information‐theoretic approach using program mark . Over 10 000 Mallards were marked in two time periods, 1964–1982 and 2002–2008, of which 13.3 and 4.7%, respectively, were later recovered. Mallards had lower annual survival in the early trapping period (0.58–0.63) than in the later period (0.69–0.71), with no clear effects of sex, age or year. Within each study period, winter harshness did not directly correlate with survival. However, milder winters may have contributed indirectly to higher survival in the second period, as winter harshness data were correlated with the distances to recovery positions for females, and also because winter recovery areas have shifted northeast during the past decades, possibly indicating a shortened migratory distance. Migration is costly, and there is therefore a likely linkage between migration behaviour and survival of dabbling ducks, in which direct as well as indirect effects of winter harshness may play a role. Other factors, such as hunting pressure, are also likely to have changed in the past decades, and may also have contributed to improved survival of Mallards in northwest Europe.     

The effects of stunning methods on product qualities in force-fed ducks and geese. 2. Fatty liver quality

This study investigated the effects of various stunning methods on the quality of French 'foie gras' in ducks and geese. The ducks (n = 30 per group) were stunned with one of the following techniques: electrical stunning in a water bath (50 Hz AC, 130 mA, 4 s), head-only electrical stunning (50 Hz AC, 600 mA, 4 s), mechanical stunning (captive bolt) and controlled atmosphere stunning (CAS: phase 1, CO2 (40%)-O2 (30%)-N2 (30%), for 2 min followed by phase 2, CO2 >85% in air, for 2 min). The same methods (except head-only stunning which was not applied) were used in geese (n = 40 per group). The weight of the liver at slaughter was not affected by the stunning techniques, neither was its colour (L*, a*, b* coordinates), despite the differences in bleeding rate between the stunning treatments. The loss of fat during the cooking of canned fatty liver did not depend upon stunning treatment. Some appearance defects of raw fatty livers were significantly affected by the treatment: mechanical and head-only stunning induced higher incidence of petechial haemorrhages in duck liver, whereas in geese, incidence of superficial haemorrhages was significantly higher after CAS and water-bath stunning. The calculation of an overall score based on the incidence and severity of the different appearance defects observed in the present experiment showed that CAS was associated with the least favourable position in ducks as well as in geese, compared to the other treatments. The commercial grading of ducks and geese fatty livers, carried out by an expert from the industry, clearly showed the detrimental effect of CAS on the commercial value of raw livers. CAS, under the conditions applied in the present work cannot be recommended, because of its drastic effect on liver quality. The underlying mechanisms deserve further investigations.     

Hypothalamic protein profiles associated with inhibited feed intake of ducks fed with insufficient dietary arginine

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of arginine on feed intake regulation. One hundred and twenty six 1-day-old male White Pekin ducks (Anas platyrhynchos domestica) were randomly were allotted to one of two dietary treatments. The birds were fed diets containing 0.71% (deficient) or 1.27% (sufficient) arginine for 3 weeks. At 21 days of age, feed intake was determined and hypothalamic protein profiles were analyzed using isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification technique. The birds fed with arginine-deficient diet had a lower final live BW and cumulative feed intake (P<0.01) than those fed with arginine-sufficient diet. A total of 16 proteins were identified in the hypothalamus with >1.5-fold expressional changes between arginine-deficient and -sufficient dietary treatments. Nine of these proteins were upregulated and seven of them were downregulated. The identified proteins could be regrouped into six categories: protein processing, carbohydrate metabolism and energy production, transporter, cytoskeleton, immunity and neuronal development. Dietary arginine deficiency decreased expression of proteins involved in energy production (glycine amidinotransferase, aldolase B fructose-bisphosphate, aconitase, transaldolase, 6-phosphofructokinase type C-like) and oxygen transportation (haemoglobin subunit α expression). The proteomic alterations described here provides valuable insights into the interactions of arginine with appetite.     

Monitoring Texas Wood Ducks With a Cooperative Nest-Box Program

ABSTRACT We analyzed 8 years of data from the Texas Cooperative Nest Box Program initiated in 1988 by Texas Parks and Wildlife, USA, as a means of involving private cooperators in statewide wood duck (Aix sponsa) management. Cooperators operated ≤9 boxes and most reported nest-box data for only 1 year (56.5%) and 2 years (20.6%) over the 8-year life of the project. Mean nest-box use differed among ecological regions of the state (F=4.23, df=6, P= 0.001) but did not exceed 30% in any region. Mean nest-box success ranged between 74–91% across ecological regions during 1988–1995, but annual estimates of nest-box success lacked precision (CVs >30%) in most years for all regions. Our project was unsuccessful as a management tool for monitoring wood duck demographics. Future efforts should focus on improving the amount and quality of data collected from box-nesting wood ducks.     

Do age and feeding levels have comparable effects on fat deposition in breast muscle of mule ducks?

The effects of age (from 1 day post-hatch to 98 days of age) and feeding levels (feed restriction followed by overfeeding v. ad libitum feeding) on lipid deposition in breast muscle (quantity and quality, localisation) of mule ducks were determined in relation to muscle energy metabolism (glycolytic and oxidative), plasma levels of lipids, glucose and insulin, and muscle capacity for lipid uptake (characterised by lipoprotein lipase (LPL) activity). Two periods were defined for age effects on intramuscular lipids in breast muscle: − 1 to 42 days of age when lipids (mainly phospholipids and cholesterol provided by egg yolk) stored in the adipocytes during embryonic life were transferred to the muscle fibres and used for growth and energy requirements, − 42 to 98 days of age when the muscle again stored lipids (mainly triglycerides provided by liver lipogenesis), first in fibres and then in adipocytes.Plasma glucose and insulin levels were not affected by age. Plasma levels of lipids and LPL activity in breast muscle were high at 1 and 14 days of age and then decreased, remaining stable until 98 days of age. Energy metabolism activity in the breast muscle (mainly glycolytic activity) increased with age.Feed restriction, corresponding to 79% of ad libitum intake, applied between 42 and 75 days of age only resulted in decreases in plasma insulin concentration and total lipid content of breast muscle, mainly affecting triglyceride and mono-unsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) levels. Overfeeding increased plasma levels of insulin and lipids while glycaemia remained stable. LPL activity and total lipid levels increased in breast muscle, mainly induced by deposition of triglycerides and MUFA occurring particularly during the 2nd week of this period. Glycolytic energy metabolism decreased.In response to age or feeding levels, muscle lipid levels and composition reflect plasma lipid levels and composition and high muscle lipid levels stimulate oxidative energy metabolism.     

Modeling spatiotemporal abundance of mobile wildlife in highly variable environments using boosted GAMLSS hurdle models

Modeling organism distributions from survey data involves numerous statistical challenges, including accounting for zero‐inflation, overdispersion, and selection and incorporation of environmental covariates. In environments with high spatial and temporal variability, addressing these challenges often requires numerous assumptions regarding organism distributions and their relationships to biophysical features. These assumptions may limit the resolution or accuracy of predictions resulting from survey‐based distribution models. We propose an iterative modeling approach that incorporates a negative binomial hurdle, followed by modeling of the relationship of organism distribution and abundance to environmental covariates using generalized additive models (GAM) and generalized additive models for location, scale, and shape (GAMLSS). Our approach accounts for key features of survey data by separating binary (presence‐absence) from count (abundance) data, separately modeling the mean and dispersion of count data, and incorporating selection of appropriate covariates and response functions from a suite of potential covariates while avoiding overfitting. We apply our modeling approach to surveys of sea duck abundance and distribution in Nantucket Sound (Massachusetts, USA), which has been proposed as a location for offshore wind energy development. Our model results highlight the importance of spatiotemporal variation in this system, as well as identifying key habitat features including distance to shore, sediment grain size, and seafloor topographic variation. Our work provides a powerful, flexible, and highly repeatable modeling framework with minimal assumptions that can be broadly applied to the modeling of survey data with high spatiotemporal variability. Applying GAMLSS models to the count portion of survey data allows us to incorporate potential overdispersion, which can dramatically affect model results in highly dynamic systems. Our approach is particularly relevant to systems in which little a priori knowledge is available regarding relationships between organism distributions and biophysical features, since it incorporates simultaneous selection of covariates and their functional relationships with organism responses.     

Reassessing perennial cover as a driver of duck nest survival in the Prairie Pothole Region

Conservation plans designed to sustain North American duck populations prominently feature a key hypothesis stating that the amount of the landscape in perennial cover surrounding upland duck nests positively influences nest survival rates. Recent conflicting research testing this hypothesis creates ambiguity regarding which management actions to pursue and where to prioritize conservation delivery. We compared existing models and new formulations of existing models explaining spatiotemporal variation in nest survival using independent data documenting the fate of >20,000 duck nests within the Drift Prairie, Missouri Coteau, and Prairie Coteau physiographic regions of the United States Prairie Pothole Region during 2002–2018. Our results suggest an inconsistent relationship between perennial cover and survival of upland duck nests, which depended upon physiographic region and current and time-lagged landscape and environmental conditions. The magnitude and direction of how perennial cover correlated with daily nest survival depended on its dominance as a landcover type. A positive relationship existed when perennial cover was a minor component of landcover in all physiographic regions (<30% of a 10.4-km² area) and, in the Drift Prairie and Prairie Coteau, when perennial cover was the dominant landcover type (>60%). A constant or negative relationship was predicted at locations of about 30–60% perennial cover. Additionally, environmental conditions (i.e., density of wetlands and estimated gross primary productivity in the previous year) moderated or enhanced the effect of perennial cover on nest survival, depending on physiographic region. Our finding of inconsistency in the relationship between perennial cover and nest survival contradicts the conservation premise that nest survival universally increases linearly when uplands are converted to perennial cover. Promoting policies and management actions designed to increase perennial cover can be expected to be situationally but not consistently associated with higher survival of upland duck nests.     

Antibacterial and anatomical defenses in an oil contaminated,vulnerable seaduck

Oil spills have killed thousands of birds during the last 100 years, but nonlethal effects of oil spills on birds remain poorly studied. We measured phenotype characters in 819 eiders Somateria mollissima (279 whole birds and 540 wings) of which 13.6% were oiled. We tested the hypotheses that (a) the morphology of eiders does not change due to oil contamination; (b) the anatomy of organs reflects the physiological reaction to contamination, for example, increase in metabolic demand, increase in food intake, and counteracting toxic effects of oil; (c) large locomotion apparatus that facilitates locomotion increases the risk of getting oiled; and (d) individual eiders with a higher production of secretions from the uropygial grand were more likely to have oil on their plumage. We tested whether 19 characters differed between oiled and nonoiled individuals, showing a consistent pattern. The final model retained seven predictor variables showing relationships between eiders contaminated with oil and food consumption, flight, and diving abilities. We tested whether these effects were due to differences in body condition, liver mass, empty gizzard mass, or other characters that could have been affected by impaired flight and diving ability. There was no evidence of such negative impact of oiling on eiders. We found that significant exposure to oil was associated with increased diversity of antibacterial defense. Oiled eiders did not constitute a random sample, and superior diving ability as reflected by large foot area was at a selective disadvantage during oil spills. Thus, specific characteristics predispose eiders to oiling, with an adaptation to swimming, diving, and flying being traded against the costs of oiling. In contrast, individuals with a high degree of physiological plasticity may experience an advantage because their uropygial secretions counteract the effects of oil contamination.