Food Habits of Migratory Ducks in Illinois
As a basis for an effective, long-time program of management for the waterfowl of the Mississippi Flyway, detailed information about the diet of ducks that migrate through Illinois was considered essential. In the autumns of 1938, 1939, and 1940, duck gizzards totaling 4,977 were collected from hunt...
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Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1959
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ftuillinoisiopn:oai:journals.iopn.library.illinois.edu:article/173 2023-05-15T16:23:10+02:00 Food Habits of Migratory Ducks in Illinois Anderson, Harry G. 1959-08-31 application/pdf https://iopn.library.illinois.edu/journals/inhs/article/view/173 eng eng Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign https://iopn.library.illinois.edu/journals/inhs/article/view/173/134 https://iopn.library.illinois.edu/journals/inhs/article/view/173 Copyright (c) 1959 University of Illinois Board of Trustees https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 CC-BY-NC Illinois Natural History Survey Bulletin; Vol. 27 No. 1-6 (1961); 289-344 2644-0687 10.21900/j.inhs.v27 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion Peer-reviewed Article 1959 ftuillinoisiopn https://doi.org/10.21900/j.inhs.v27 2022-08-25T08:28:32Z As a basis for an effective, long-time program of management for the waterfowl of the Mississippi Flyway, detailed information about the diet of ducks that migrate through Illinois was considered essential. In the autumns of 1938, 1939, and 1940, duck gizzards totaling 4,977 were collected from hunting clubs and individual hunters at 21 sites along the Illinois River between Ottawa and Florence and 11 sites along the Mississippi River between Rock Island and Quincy. The following 17 duck species were represented: mallard, pintail, green-winged teal, blue-winged teal, baldpate, gadwall, shoveler, black duck, wood duck, lesser scaup, ring-necked duck, redhead, canvasback, ruddy duck, greater scaup, common goldeneye, and oldsquaw. The analyses indicated that, during the fall, most species of ducks in Illinois are predominantly vegetarians, that most of them feed principally on native wild plants, and that the lesser scaup is the only species with a diet predominantly animal. Of the 95 wild plants and 4 cultivated plants found in the gizzards and identified to species, the following 19 were most important: corn, rice cutgrass, marsh smartweed, coontail, wild millet, longleaf pondweed, red-rooted nut-grass, waterhemp, nodding smartweed, buttonbush, large-seeded smartweed, nut-grass, chufa, Walter's millet, sago pondweed, duckpotato, river-bulrush, teal grass, and giant bur-reed. Snails and mussels provided the largest animal food volume and occurred in the largest number of gizzards. Insects were second in volume and occurrence. More than 200 of the gizzards examined contained lead shot pellets that had been ingested. Article in Journal/Newspaper greater scaup Shoveler IOPN Journals (Illinois Open Publishing Network) Illinois Natural History Survey Bulletin 27 1-6 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
IOPN Journals (Illinois Open Publishing Network) |
op_collection_id |
ftuillinoisiopn |
language |
English |
description |
As a basis for an effective, long-time program of management for the waterfowl of the Mississippi Flyway, detailed information about the diet of ducks that migrate through Illinois was considered essential. In the autumns of 1938, 1939, and 1940, duck gizzards totaling 4,977 were collected from hunting clubs and individual hunters at 21 sites along the Illinois River between Ottawa and Florence and 11 sites along the Mississippi River between Rock Island and Quincy. The following 17 duck species were represented: mallard, pintail, green-winged teal, blue-winged teal, baldpate, gadwall, shoveler, black duck, wood duck, lesser scaup, ring-necked duck, redhead, canvasback, ruddy duck, greater scaup, common goldeneye, and oldsquaw. The analyses indicated that, during the fall, most species of ducks in Illinois are predominantly vegetarians, that most of them feed principally on native wild plants, and that the lesser scaup is the only species with a diet predominantly animal. Of the 95 wild plants and 4 cultivated plants found in the gizzards and identified to species, the following 19 were most important: corn, rice cutgrass, marsh smartweed, coontail, wild millet, longleaf pondweed, red-rooted nut-grass, waterhemp, nodding smartweed, buttonbush, large-seeded smartweed, nut-grass, chufa, Walter's millet, sago pondweed, duckpotato, river-bulrush, teal grass, and giant bur-reed. Snails and mussels provided the largest animal food volume and occurred in the largest number of gizzards. Insects were second in volume and occurrence. More than 200 of the gizzards examined contained lead shot pellets that had been ingested. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Anderson, Harry G. |
spellingShingle |
Anderson, Harry G. Food Habits of Migratory Ducks in Illinois |
author_facet |
Anderson, Harry G. |
author_sort |
Anderson, Harry G. |
title |
Food Habits of Migratory Ducks in Illinois |
title_short |
Food Habits of Migratory Ducks in Illinois |
title_full |
Food Habits of Migratory Ducks in Illinois |
title_fullStr |
Food Habits of Migratory Ducks in Illinois |
title_full_unstemmed |
Food Habits of Migratory Ducks in Illinois |
title_sort |
food habits of migratory ducks in illinois |
publisher |
Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
publishDate |
1959 |
url |
https://iopn.library.illinois.edu/journals/inhs/article/view/173 |
genre |
greater scaup Shoveler |
genre_facet |
greater scaup Shoveler |
op_source |
Illinois Natural History Survey Bulletin; Vol. 27 No. 1-6 (1961); 289-344 2644-0687 10.21900/j.inhs.v27 |
op_relation |
https://iopn.library.illinois.edu/journals/inhs/article/view/173/134 https://iopn.library.illinois.edu/journals/inhs/article/view/173 |
op_rights |
Copyright (c) 1959 University of Illinois Board of Trustees https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-NC |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.21900/j.inhs.v27 |
container_title |
Illinois Natural History Survey Bulletin |
container_volume |
27 |
container_issue |
1-6 |
_version_ |
1766011383346888704 |