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Using Stable Isotope Techniques To Complement Existing Northern Pintail Management., Dariusz Wojtaszek

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The Northern Pintail (Anas acuta) is a waterfowl game species with North American population levels consistently below long-term management goals. Native habitat loss to agriculture likely reduced recruitment and limits population growth. My objective was to provide a proof-of-concept approach to using stable isotope ratios (δ²H, δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N) in feathers to infer spatial origins and habitat selection to complement existing pintail management. I found 46% of all sampled pintails had likely moult origins in the boreal biome, compared to 32% estimated by breeding population survey and 55% of recruitment of young …