Survival of females, nests, and ducklings strongly influence annual recruitment in North American ducks. Studies of cavity-nesting ducks using nest boxes, such as wood ducks (Aix sponsa), hooded merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus) and black-bellied whistling duck (Dendrocygna autumnalis) historically have investigated extrinsic factors, such as nest predation, and how it influenced nest success. For my study, I evaluated data from 1,403 monitored nest boxes collected from eight states, 2020–2022. I studied intrinsic characteristics related to reproduction, such as egg and clutch sizes, and eggshell strength in the 3 cavity-nesting ducks. Variables including clutch size, egg mass, parasitism, and onset of incubation influenced reproductive success of wood ducks. Latitude also influenced clutch size in wood ducks, where for every 14.3° increase in latitude, I found one more egg per clutch. Hooded mergansers had the strongest eggshells and eggshell composition varied across latitude in hooded merganser, but not in wood ducks.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MSSTATE/oai:scholarsjunction.msstate.edu:td-7263 |
| Date | 13 August 2024 |
| Creators | Mentges, Hunter Elijah |
| Publisher | Scholars Junction |
| Source Sets | Mississippi State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Theses and Dissertations |
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