The U.S. population of eastern mallards — dabbling ducks with distinctive green heads — has plunged inexplicably by 50 percent in the last 20 years, prompting ESF to launch research into the birds’ productivity, changes in their habitat and their genetic diversity.
Long-term data collected along the Atlantic Flyway indicates the birds’ numbers are falling dramatically, but scientists cannot explain why.
“We don’t know the mechanism for the decline,” said Dr. Michael Schummer, a faculty member in the Department of Environmental and Forest Biology.
Schummer and several partners have responded to the changes in the population with a research effort called Rescue the Eastern Mallard. He said the challenge highlights an urgent need for humans to address biodiversity loss and devise ways to accommodate wildlife in developed areas.
“We have to get this one right,” he said. “Eastern mallards are one of the most monitored populations on the planet. We band thousands of them and recover lots of them every year. We fly planes over to count them, we get on the ground and count them. We have all these data, but we don’t know why they are in decline.
“If we don’t figure this one out, we’re in trouble,” he said. “We have imperiled species in faraway places that are much more isolated. Here, we have an opportunity to answer some important questions about what happens when even common species start to decline. We are working in one of the most populated places on Earth, so we have access to lots of birds and data. If we can’t find a way to keep animals with us in this urban environment, where is it going to happen?”
A crowd-funding effort at the end of 2019 has so far raised some $30,000 that is being added to funds received previously for the project. Schummer credits Delta Waterfowl with leading the support. The Schummer Lab for Waterfowl and Wetlands Conservation is also partnering with Ducks Unlimited and the Long Island Wildfowl Heritage Group.
The scientists will use innovative techniques to analyze elements locked in mallard feathers to understand where eastern mallards are hatched. High-resolution satellite imagery will help researchers understand how changing landscapes influence the number of mallard ducklings produced. And new genetic technologies and techniques will be used to determine the genetic diversity of mallards regionally.
Schummer said preliminary analyses are already providing novel insight: the majority of Eastern mallards are produced in Canada, even though most of the breeding population is in the United States.
Claire B. Dunn is a freelance science writer in the Syracuse area.
