Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
In a regularly flooded bottomland forest, some 10 ha in size, 98 nests of the mallard were found and regularly inspected. They were situated on pollarded willows (Salix spp.). After their first arousal from their nests, the mallard became much more sensitive to approaching man. Water bodies inside that forest are visited by sports anglers who stay there from early morning till dusk on days of rest. The mallard aroused by them cannot return to their nests for several days. This fact resulted in 56 (or 57.2%) abandoned clutches, including those shortly before hatching and, in three cases, even hatching young. On the contrary, breeding was not disturbed in places (even very frequented) where the incubating females were not roused by the inspection.
U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/literatr/disturb/bibli003.htm
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Menlo Park, CA [caww54]
