Mottled Ducks of South Carolina Anas fulvigula
History
The Mottled Duck is considered "monochromatic" meaning that the males and females look nearly identical with only few differences that only scientists can usually see. They are originally from the Gulf of Mexico and were brought to South Carolina in 1975-1982 to try and establish a population.
Nemours Wildlife Foundation along with the help of Mississippi State University funded a project along the ACE Basin to try and find out more about this population of ducks. They wanted to determine the breeding and brood rearing ecology habits of this species because it has not been studied before in the past.
Habitat Type
Researchers are currently trying to determine the actual habitat type that Mottled Ducks prefer. As of right now they have decided that they prefer brushy, marsh areas to be able to blend in well with their surroundings. They also tend to stay along the coast, which is an adaptation that they have kept since coming from the Gulf.
IUCN Status
The IUCN Red List status of the Mottled Duck is of Least Concern, although its population trend is listed as decreasing. They did not however list any ways that they are trying to conserve the species.
Conservation Issues
The issues threatening this species are very similar to many other waterfowl species except they seem to take a larger toll on this population. They are very prone to nest predation, as they nest on the ground in brushy marsh areas. Habitat fragmentation is also a problem for them as many of our marshlands are now turning into upland grassland habitat. They also tend to have reproduction problems, sometimes if they cannot find a mate easily they will just go a year without reproduction. But there are some studies out there helping with their problems.
Conservation Practices
This past Spring Break the Clemson University Kennedy Waterfowl and Wetlands Center Interns devoted their entire week to helping conserve this special species along the ACE Basin. We traveled down to Nemours Wildlife Foundation to help Molly Kneece to finish the hard work of putting up these nesting structures all along the ACE Basin. She is a Master's Student at Mississippi State University studying the breeding and brood rearing ecology of Mottled Ducks. These nest structures will help to monitor the nest success of each duck and also help to determine the nesting ecology to ensure that future generations of this species can be helped the correct way. It also makes it easier to monitor predation at and around the nest, which is a huge deal in future nest success.
Spring Break helped to open our eyes, as interns, to see the different ways that conservation can be practiced. By simply putting up the nest structures and learning more about the ecology that they have been learning about from these birds, we learned more about conservation all together.
These were the first nest structures to be put up in the ACE Basin for Mottled Ducks within the past 20 years. Back then it showed a positive impact on the South Carolina population, and we are hoping for the same results. It would also be ideal for people to take this practice into their own hands, as they did with the Wood Duck restoration project, and put up nest structures across their own properties near the ACE Basin to help promote more breeding of Mottled Ducks.
Works Cited
Kneece, Molly. Mississippi State University. Breeding and brood rearing ecology of Mottled Ducks in the Ashepoo, Combahee, and Edisto Rivers Basin, South Carolina. 2016.