The role of insects in the diet of Mallard ducklings - an experimental approach.

Abstract

Ducklings of dabbling ducks, including those of the Mallard Anas platyrhynchos show a preference for invertebrate animals, particularly insects, as food in the first weeks of life (Chura 1961, Perret 1962, Collias & Collias 1963, Bartonek 1972, Bengtson 1975). It has been suggested in a previous paper (Street 1977) that the very high (77%) mortality among ducklings hatched in the Amey Roadstone Corporation - Game Conservancy Wildfowl Reserve, near Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, is due to the lack of animal food items in the diet. There is a relative scarcity of such foodstuffs in the study area due to the oligotrophic nature of the newly flooded gravel pit habitat.

This paper describes the results of two feeding trials which test the hypothesis that invertebrates are essential foods for newly hatched Mallard ducklings.