The November 2004 meeting of the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission saw the announcement of a two-year research project to track mallard hens in southwestern and northeastern areas of the state using radio telemetry. This is a cooperative effort involving the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF), Ducks Unlimited (DU), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit at LSU. Recently, the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry has become a project partner by donating airplane and pilot time to locate mallards. "Part of the incentive for this research was to address some of the recurring questions from duck hunters over the past few years about reduced numbers of ducks and poor hunting success," said Robert Helm, LDWF Waterfowl Program Manager.
The objectives of the study are to document local and long-range movements of mallards, determine the types of habitats used and develop estimates of survival rates of mallard hens wintering in the south. "Habitat use information gleaned from this study will improve habitat conservation efforts intended to benefit mallards and other dabblers," said Barry Wilson, Gulf Coast Joint Venture Coordinator (USFWS). This project will use mallards that have already migrated to Louisiana, so it will not address a common concern among waterfowlers, and that is whether there have been large changes in migration patterns of ducks within the Mississippi Flyway and throughout the U.S. "We are all very interested in getting new information on mallard survival, movements, and habitat use. State and federal agencies, and Ducks Unlimited, all will be able to use this information to refine their habitat conservation programs in the Mississippi Valley and along the Gulf Coast," said Tom Moorman, Director of Conservation Planning for Ducks Unlimited.
Two graduate students and their assistants from LSU began efforts to locate mallards for trapping in late October at each of the study areas in southwest and northeast Louisiana. They surveyed wetland sites on private, state and federal areas on a regular basis to locate an adequate number of mallards. "This has turned out to be a very difficult fall and winter to trap mallards," reported Dr. Alan Afton with the USGS who is coordinating efforts among researchers. Few mallards appeared on study areas until mid-December. Mild weather delayed mallard migration into the state and heavy November and December rains flooded trap sites on several occasions and also caused wide distribution of ducks over large areas of habitat. Despite these challenges, researchers marked 91 mallard hens in northeast Louisiana and 60 in southwest marshes as of the first week of January. "Without the persistence and hard work of each of the two student crews we would not have been able to reach this point in the study," reported Dr. Afton.
The northeast mallards were marked earlier than those in the south, and hunters in north Louisiana and southern Arkansas have taken six of those. Of the remaining 85 radio-marked mallards, 78 remain in the region and seven, temporarily, could not be located. Poor weather conditions for flying in recent days have hampered tracking efforts. There was less movement than expected during the cold weather around Christmas with only some limited movements of mallards both to the east and south (60 miles). Many of the 60 mallards marked in coastal marshes have been captured recently, so have had less exposure. So far in the south hunters have taken two mallards and predators have killed four. Most of these ducks are flying one to five miles from roost sites to apparently feed in rice fields and marshes.
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