Estimating Abundance and Other Population Parameters for Harlequin Ducks

Harlequin Ducks were marked with individually numbered tags over a 12 year period. In each year, new birds were marked and some of the older birds were resighted. Based on the pattern of when these marks are seen, important parameters such as the abundance, survival rates, and migration rates of the ducks can be estimated. The study undertaken by the intern has a number of unique features (e.g. only resightings are done at some occasions; males are not present at some occasions; the parentage of chicks is known from banding studies) so that new mark-recapture methods of analysis need to be developed. These new methods will be used to estimate abundance, the effect of pair-bonding on individual survival rates; and the influence of parental lineage on juvenile survival.

Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Carl Schwarz

Student:

Wendell Challenger

Partner:

Bighorn Wildlife Technologies Ltd.

Discipline:

Statistics / Actuarial sciences

Sector:

Fisheries and wildlife

University:

Simon Fraser University