American black duck PTT data from Atlantic Canada

American black ducks, native to eastern North America, have been the focus
of significant international conservation and management programs. The
combined USA and Canadian population has traditionally been managed as a
single population; however black duck demographics may vary by region. To
help understand potential regional differences in black ducks, we used
satellite telemetry to assess migratory chronology and movements of black
ducks wintering near Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada, near the northern
limits of their wintering range where numbers are increasing. Wintering
black ducks from Nova Scotia did not leave the Atlantic Flyway and
included both longer-distance migrants (~ 1 500 km north) and
locally-breeding individuals. None of our tracked ducks travelled south of
Nova Scotia during any part of the annual cycle, indicating a population
segment that never leaves Canada and is subject solely to Canadian harvest
pressures. Band recovery data revealed that a small portion (2.4%) of
black ducks originally banded during winter in Nova Scotia were recovered
south along the east coast of the USA, indicating that some of these black
ducks are subject to international harvest pressures. Our results show
that there are differences in annual black duck movements even within a
small part of their range, adding to the growing evidence that black duck
populations show fine-scale temporal and spatial structure. This structure
will need to be considered in future interprovincial and international
harvest management plans of this important species.