Food Habits of Dabbling Ducks During Fall Migration in a Prairie Pothole System, Heron Lake, Minnesota

Authors

  • Ryan M. Wersal GeoResources Institute, Mississippi State University, Box 9652, Mississippi State, Mississippi 39762
  • Brock R. McMillan Department of Biological Sciences, Minnesota State University, Mankato, 242 Trafton Science Center S, Mankato, Minnesota 56001
  • John D. Madsen GeoResources Institute, Mississippi State University, Box 9652, Mississippi State, Mississippi 39762

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22621/cfn.v119i4.186

Keywords:

Food habits, waterfowl, gizzard contents, aggregate volume, submersed macrophytes, Curltop Ladysthumb, Polygonum lapathifolium, Sago Pondweed, Stuckenia pectinata

Abstract

We conducted an analysis of dabbling duck food habits in the fall of 2002 and 2003 in the Heron Lake system. Gizzard contents of hunter-harvested birds were analyzed using the percent aggregate volume method to determine what food items were consumed and in what quantity. Curltop Ladysthumb (Polygonum lapathifolium) was the food item consumed most often (82.2%) and in the greatest volume (34.2 ml). Sago Pondweed (Stuckenia pectinata) was the only food item of which multiple plant parts were consumed. However, the seeds and tubers only comprised 1.27 and 0.07 of the total aggregate percent.

Downloads

Issue

Vol. 119 No. 4 (2005)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright for Canadian Field-Naturalist content is held by the Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club, except for content published by employees of federal government departments, in which case the copyright is held by the Crown. In-copyright content available at the Biodiversity Heritage Library is available for re-use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence. For usage of content at the BHL for purposes other than those allowed under this licence, contact us.

 

To request use of copyright material,  please contact our editor, Dr. Dwayne Lepitzki: editor -at- canadianfieldnaturalist -dot- ca