The effect of habitat on the breeding season survival of Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) in the Great Lakes region

Modeling the effect of habitat on animal survival is critical for understanding population dynamics and developing effective habitat management strategies. Despite the importance of this information, knowledge of survival–habitat associations are often lacking, particularly for waterfowl species. Here we evaluated female Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758) survival during the breeding season in relation to habitat conditions within each individual’s home range. We implanted telemetry transmitters and tracked 283 female Mallards across nine study sites in the Great Lakes region. For each Mallard, we quantified core breeding season home ranges via the creation of utilization distributions (UDs). We then fit known-fate models in the program MARK to predict breeding season survival as a function of the proximity of core home ranges to various habitat types, the proportion of habitat types within the core areas, number of core areas, and home range size. We found that breeding season survival decreased as the proportion of forestland habitat within core home ranges increased (β = −1.740, SE = 0.787). No additional upland or wetland habitat types significantly affected breeding season survival. Managers striving to increase breeding season survival for Mallards should focus their efforts on restoring habitats in areas with low proportions of forestland habitat to mitigate the risk of predation.