Mallard Anas platyrhynchos ecology drives current habitat management strategies for most waterfowl; however, are these suitable other dabbling duck species? Migratory waterfowl, in addition to mallards, the lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley experience heavy hunting pressure, so should be appropriate a broader array of species. We investigated associations ducks (dabblers) Arkansas portion and f...

•One of the more well-known examples of hybridization in birds is the frequently documented occurrence between sexually dimorphic Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) and several closely related nondimorphic species in the mallard complex. In New Zealand, the Grey Duck (Anas superciliosa superciliosa) is the indigenous, nondimorphic Mallardlike species, and extensive hybridization with introduced Mall...

Knowledge about population structure and connectivity of waterfowl species, especially mallards (Anas platyrhynchos), is a priority because of recent outbreaks of avian influenza. Ringing studies that trace large-scale movement patterns have to date been unable to detect clearly delineated mallard populations. We employed 363 single nucleotide polymorphism markers in combination with population...

Helminth parasites of mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) were surveyed in Bayou Traverse, a waterway in the LaBranche wetlands of southeastern Louisiana, U.S.A. In total, 1,255 parasites belonging to 8 species were collected and identified, including Ascocotyle ampullacea, Ascocotyle mcintoshi, Ascocotyle tenuicollis, Phagicola diminuta, Phagicola sp., Echinochasmus swartzi, Posthodiplostomum mini...

Leucocytozoon simondi is an apicomplexan blood parasite of waterfowl that frequently causes significant mortality, and thus is expected to provoke a significant immune response in hosts. Using blood smears collected in consecutive weeks from 30 wild-stock mallard, Anas platyrhynchos, ducklings, we tested with repeated measures analyses for associations between leucocyte profiles and L. simondi ...