R. Keith Andringa

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Program, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843

Daily Weather Affects Body Condition, Sex, and Age Ratios of Harvested Dabbling Ducks in Texas

SEAFWA Journal Volume 9, March 2022

Duck activity patterns have anecdotally been associated with weather for thousands of years. However, these relationships have rarely been tested scientifically. We hypothesized that characteristics of wintering ducks harvested by hunters would be associated with daily weather conditions (precipitation, temperature, and wind speed), and specifically, that smaller-bodied ducks and those with poor body condition would be harvested less frequently in adverse weather conditions relative to 30-year daily normals. We evaluated these hypotheses using beta regression modeling and general...