Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Colorado
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

The mottled duck (Anas fulvigula) is a relatively sedentary hunted waterfowl species dependent on coastal marsh and other habitats along the Gulf Coast for its entire life cycle, and therefore especially subject to development and habitat loss along the Gulf Coast. Various monitoring programs are in place to assess the status of this species, and inform harvest and habitat management decisions. A banding needs assessment is needed to evaluate the experimental banding done since the 1990’s, to design an operational banding program that accounts for harvest rates, survival rates, and movements among states, and integrates with the other monitoring programs for this population. This project is a collaboration with USFWS Regions 2 and 9, Division of Migratory Birds and Refuges; Texas Parks and Wildlife; and the Louisiana Department of Fisheries and Wildlife. The banding data, along with abundance surveys and harvest surveys, will be integrated in a population model to inform future monitoring and mottled duck management decisions.