Endozoochory by mallard in New Zealand: what seeds are dispersed and how far?

PeerJ
Riley D BartelAndy J Green

Abstract

In Europe and North America waterfowl are major dispersers of aquatic and terrestrial plants, but in New Zealand their role has yet to be investigated. Mallards were introduced to New Zealand in the late 1800s, and today they are the most abundant and widespread waterfowl in the country. To assess seed dispersal, we radiomarked 284 female mallards from two study sites during the pre-breeding (June-August) and breeding (August-December) periods in 2014-2015, and examined movements that occurred within 24, 48 or 72 h when seed dispersal by endozoochory is considered likely. During June and July 2015, we collected 29 faecal samples from individual female mallards during radiomarking and 24 samples from mallard flocks. We recovered 69 intact seeds from the faecal samples and identified 12 plant taxa. Of the plant seeds identified and dispersed by mallards in this study, 40% were members of the Asteraceae family, nine plant species were alien to New Zealand, and the indigenous-status of three unidentified taxa could not be determined. Two taxa (and 9% of seeds) were germinated following gut passage: an unidentified Asteraceae and Solanum nigrum. During the pre-breeding and breeding periods, movement of females within 24 h averaged 3...Continue Reading

References

Sep 22, 2007·Conservation Biology : the Journal of the Society for Conservation Biology·Jeffrey T Foster, Scott K Robinson
Jun 28, 2014·PloS One·Daniel BengtssonJonas Waldenström
Feb 6, 2017·Movement Ecology·Michael Li, Benjamin M Bolker
Aug 25, 2017·Pest Management Science·Jaime A FarmerKevin W Bradley

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Citations

Feb 23, 2020·Ecology and Evolution·Ádám Lovas-KissAndy J Green

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Software Mentioned

R
Location of a Signal Software
adehabitat

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