Behaviour of unpaired male black ducks (Anas rubripes) during the breeding season in a Nova Scotia tidal marsh

1979 ◽  
Vol 57 (12) ◽  
pp. 2421-2428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman R. Seymour ◽  
Rodger D. Titman
Keyword(s):  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Breeding Season ◽  
Tidal Marsh ◽  
Tidal Estuary ◽  
Anas Rubripes ◽  
Pair Bonds ◽  
Communal Area

Behaviour of unpaired male black ducks throughout the breeding season was studied for 3 years (1973, 1974, 1978) in the marsh of a tidal estuary near Antigonish, Nova Scotia. Males remained primarily on a communal area in the marsh. Reproductively oriented activities occurred from late March until late May and peaked in frequency and intensity in early April. Most frequently daily display occurred from 0800 to 1300 hours. Unpaired males joined pairs singly or in groups but only grouped birds courted females. Unpaired males were tolerated on territories and some single males associated with pairs for several days. Groups joined pairs that foraged on the communal area, often persisting with them and disrupting their activity. Males appeared to prefer to court introduced unpaired females over paired females, which were always with their mates. Some males appeared successful in forming pair bonds with introduced females. Males did not attempt to rape females either on territories or the communal area and mallard (A. platyrhynchos) and pintail (A. acuta) males courted female black ducks.

Diving behaviour during the breeding season in the terrestrially breeding male grey seal: implications for alternative mating tactics

2003 ◽  
Vol 81 (6) ◽  
pp. 1025-1033 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damian C Lidgard ◽  
Daryl J Boness ◽  
W Don Bowen ◽  
Jim I McMillan
Keyword(s):  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Breeding Season ◽  
Foraging Behaviour ◽  
Diving Behaviour ◽  
Halichoerus Grypus ◽  
Phenotypic Traits ◽  
Alternative Mating Tactics ◽  
Grey Seal ◽  
Mating Tactics

We examined the diving behaviour of breeding male grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) at Sable Island, Nova Scotia, from 1997 to 2001. The proportion of time spent at sea varied between 0 and 78% (N = 30). Males engaged in deep (43.4 ± 3.3 m (mean ± SE), N = 27) diving, and these dives were clustered into bouts, which mostly occurred during long trips (62.2 ± 14.7 h). We suggest that males spent time foraging during deep dives. Shallow diving (5.9 ± 0.1 m, N = 27) accounted for 40.8% of dives, which were also clustered into bouts that mostly occurred during short trips (2.1 ± 0.37 h). We suggest that shallow diving comprised a suite of behaviours, but included little foraging behaviour. Phenotypic traits had little influence on diving behaviour. Further work is required to understand the extent to which foraging behaviour enhances reproductive success, and whether shallow diving is a component of the mating tactics of male grey seals at Sable Island.

scholarly journals Reproductive Consequences of Autumnal Singing in Black Redstarts (Phoenicurus Ochruros)

The Auk ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 117 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Weggler
Keyword(s):  
Breeding Season ◽  
Winter Mortality ◽  
Adult Males ◽  
Pair Bonds ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Territory Acquisition ◽  
Plumage Maturation ◽  
New Locations ◽  
Phoenicurus Ochruros ◽  
Reproductive Consequences

Abstract In a migratory population of Black Redstarts (Phoenicurus ochruros) in central Europe, males were territorial and sang in autumn between the end of molt in early September and the abandonment of territories in October. Participants in autumn singing were adult males past their first potential breeding season; subadults rarely defended territories in autumn. Prior to the autumn singing period, unmated males and males after their first breeding season often dispersed to new locations within the study site. Pair associations with experienced female breeders still present on the breeding ground were preformed. Low winter mortality, site dominance, and fidelity to autumn territories allowed the reformation of 59% of autumnal pair bonds in the following spring. The mating pattern was assortative by age because the initiation of territory acquisition and pair formation was temporally segregated by more than six months between subadult and adult breeders. Males benefitted from mating with experienced females because they started breeding earlier and initiated more breeding attempts per season. Autumnal singing and territoriality, a phenomenon that has not attracted much attention, may play a key role in the understanding of age-related reproductive asymmetries in Black Redstarts. Age-related reproductive performance may be the underlying cause for the evolution of delayed plumage maturation in this species.

The behavior of adult gray seals (Halichoerus grypus) in the early stages of the breeding season

1969 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Austin W. Cameron
Keyword(s):  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Breeding Season ◽  
Mass Movement ◽  
Territorial Behavior ◽  
Halichoerus Grypus ◽  
Breeding Area ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
Gray Seals

A 4-week period, December 18, 1967, to January 16, 1968, was spent studying a colony of gray seals on the Basque Islands, Nova Scotia. Before hauling out on the breeding islands, the seals congregate on exposed reefs nearby, where they remain for several weeks. Once invasion of the breeding area begins there is a mass movement and the entire herd beaches within the space of a week. The first seal observed to haul out was a cow which whelped within 24 hours. The bulls take up stations almost immediately whereas the cows wander aimlessly over the breeding area until they have whelped. The spot at which the pup is born seems to determine the cow's station. For several days after the pup is born, the cow remains with it constantly; thereafter she goes to sea at regular intervals. For the first week to 10 days after beaching, the bulls exhibit no territorial behavior and it is possible the boundaries are not established until later. The resident bulls appeared to ignore each other and no fighting was observed.

Breeding habitat selection and home range of radio-marked black ducks (Anas rubripes) in Maine

1982 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
James K. Ringelman ◽  
Jerry R. Longcore ◽  
Ray B. Owen Jr.
Keyword(s):  
Home Range ◽  
Home Range Size ◽  
Breeding Habitat ◽  
Breeding Period ◽  
Home Ranges ◽  
Anas Rubripes ◽  
South Central ◽  
Pair Bonds ◽  
Frequent Use ◽  
Ephemeral Pools

Telemetry techniques were used to monitor the movements and habitat use of 13 female and 7 male black ducks (Anas rubripes) in an inland breeding region of south central Maine in 1977–1980. Black ducks preferred persistent emergent, broad-leaved deciduous forested, and broad-leaved deciduous scrub–shrub wetlands over unconsolidated organic bottom, needle-leaved evergreen forested, and broad-leaved evergreen scrub–shrub ponds. Birds also made frequent use of small ephemeral pools and streams throughout the breeding period. Nests were located in several habitats ranging from wetland sites to upland areas 1.5 km from the most frequently used pond. Home range size averaged 119 ha for females and 231 ha for males and did not differ by reproductive stage. Three pairs used only a single pond during the incubation period. Home ranges were linear (linearity index = 2.8), averaging 1956 m long for females and 2755 m for males. Wetlands used most by hens during incubation recesses were not always those located closest to the nest. Radio-marked ducks that returned in subsequent breeding seasons demonstrated fidelity to the previously used home range. Pair bonds of marked birds lasted until day 19 or 20 of incubation for initial nesting attempts.

scholarly journals Migration chronology and movements of adult American black ducks Anas rubripes wintering in Nova Scotia, Canada

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liam E. Peck ◽  
Matthew D. English ◽  
Gregory J. Robertson ◽  
Shawn R. Craik ◽  
Mark L. Mallory
Keyword(s):  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Anas Rubripes ◽  
American Black ◽  
Migration Chronology

Habitat-related variation in movements and fledging success of American black duck broods in northeastern Nova Scotia

1996 ◽  
Vol 74 (6) ◽  
pp. 1158-1164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman Seymour ◽  
Winston Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Tidal Marsh ◽  
Freshwater Wetlands ◽  
Fledging Success ◽  
Black Duck ◽  
Brood Movement ◽  
American Black ◽  
American Black Duck ◽  
In Transit ◽  
Three Rivers

Female American black ducks (Anas rubripes) are known to move their broods from low- to high-nutrient rearing sites. We studied the extent of brood movement and fledging success in a northeastern Nova Scotia watershed. Annually, about half the broods moved either overland or along three rivers from small, widely dispersed oligotrophic–mesotrophic wetlands to a large hypertrophic tidal marsh. Mean brood size at fledging was 3.50 in the tidal marsh but 7.05 at the dispersed freshwater wetlands. Females that remained at dispersed sites fledged more ducklings than females that moved to the marsh. Attrition occurred predominantly in the marsh or in transit. Females fledged fewer young when they raised broods at the marsh than when the same females raised broods at inland sites. Females were as successful at nutrient-poor sites as at nutrient-rich sites. The study suggests that concentrating birds in nutrient-rich sites may be counterproductive in terms of female reproductive fitness and population recruitment.

On Streptovitella acadiœ (gen. et spec. nov.). A Trematode of the Family Heterophyidæ from the Black Duck (Anas rubripes)

1933 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
William E. Swales
Keyword(s):  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Popular Belief ◽  
Anas Rubripes ◽  
Migratory Flight ◽  
Animal Diseases ◽  
Black Duck ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Short Period ◽  
The Family ◽  
Research Institute

In the spring of 1932, Mr. Otto Schierbeck, Chief Forester for the Province of Nova Scotia, forwarded several Black Ducks (Anas rubripes) which he had collected in a dead or dying condition on the shores of Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, to the Animal Diseases Research Institute, Hull, Quebec. Mr. Schierbeck stated that the ducks had arrived there on their northward migratory flight six weeks earlier than usual, and after a period of hardship, had commenced to die in large numbers; and although the popular belief was that starvation was the cause of these deaths, he was not convinced that this was the case, owing to the apparently short period between the first signs of sickness and death.

Ovine ill-thrift in Nova Scotia:II. The production of antibiotics by fungi isolated from forest and marshland soil

1972 ◽  
Vol 78 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Brewer ◽  
A. Taylor ◽  
M. M. Hoehn
Keyword(s):  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Forest Soil ◽  
Tidal Marsh ◽  
Deciduous Forest ◽  
Antibiotic Production ◽  
Mixed Conifer ◽  
Production Potential ◽  
Fungal Population ◽  
Permanent Pasture ◽  
Fungal Populations

SUMMARYThree hundred and seventy-six isolates, or about 9% of the cultures collected in 1967 and 1968 from soil of permanent pasture, that, prior to 1883, supported mixed conifer and deciduous forest, were cultivated in the laboratory. Antibiotic production was detected in 27% of the cultures. Similarly, 329 isolates, or 9% of those collected in the same period from soil of permanent pasture reclaimed from tidal marsh, were grown in the laboratory and antibiotics detected in 30%. The forest soil, because it was already known to have a denser fungal population, thus had a greater antibiotic production potential than the marshland soil. There was a small increase in the number of isolates from the forest soil that produced antibiotics when those obtained in the spring were compared to those collected in the autumn. The opposite relationship was found when the marshland isolates from the two seasons were similarly compared. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that the fungal populations of these soils are a parameter in the aetiology of the ill-thrift that is found in ruminants at Nappan, Nova Scotia.

scholarly journals Extra-pair paternity in the long-tailed finchPoephila acuticauda

PeerJ ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. e1550 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erica P. van Rooij ◽  
Lee A. Rollins ◽  
Clare E. Holleley ◽  
Simon C. Griffith
Keyword(s):  
Breeding Season ◽  
Breeding System ◽  
Molecular Data ◽  
Passerine Birds ◽  
Genetic Breeding ◽  
Extra Pair Paternity ◽  
Genetic Monogamy ◽  
Pair Bonds ◽  
Monogamous Species ◽  
Socially Monogamous

Although the majority of passerine birds are socially monogamous, true genetic monogamy is rare, with extra-pair paternity (EPP) occurring in almost 90% of surveyed socially monogamous species. We present the first molecular data on the genetic breeding system of the long-tailed finch,Poephila acuticauda, a grass finch endemic to the tropical northern savannah of Australia. Although the species forms socially monogamous pair bonds during the breeding season, we found that extra-pair males sired 12.8% of 391 offspring, in 25.7% of 101 broods. Our findings provide only the second estimate of extra-pair paternity in the estrildid finch family.

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