Autumn duck pairing and wintering strategies: an adaptive response to environmental winter conditions

Tamisier, Alain and Dehorter, Olivier (1997) Autumn duck pairing and wintering strategies: an adaptive response to environmental winter conditions. MAGYAR VÍZIVAD KÖZLEMÉNYEK, 3. pp. 121-129. ISSN 1416-1389 (nyomtatott); 1419-6107 (elektronikus)

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Abstract

Recent papers demonstrated a strong correlation between body conditions of ducks at the end of the winter season and breeding success From data (feeding duration per day and body mass) collected in the Camargue, south France, on three duck species, we already suggested that birds adopt a sets of behavioural and ecological mechanisms, so called a wintering strategy, from which body conditions at the beginning of the winter season predict body conditions at the end of the season (Tamisier et al. 1996) Within this strategy which has an adaptive value, autumn pairing seems to have a key position since paired birds are hierarchically dominant for food access at the end of the winter when food shortage occurs. Hence early pairing would be an advantage, not only for females, as most often thought, but also for males The cost of early pairing would be recuperated later on in terms of breeding success.

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