American Wigeon

Last semester in wildlife techniques class, we learned about the American Wigeon (Anas americana) through going to the field and observing them for our class project. We counted the amount of wigeon present on two ponds in Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary to see if there was a trend in their population numbers from day to day. One of the things we looked for was to see if it seemed as though they were being attacked by predators. We predicted that when the ducks would all fly up off of the pond at the same time, that there was probably a predator present. They would demonstrate vigilance. In Berl and Black (2011) paper, they tested vigilance in the American Wigeon. It found that when the wigeon are further away from water, they became more vigilant. The wigeon primary grazed on grasslands, and used the pond habitats as a safety corridor. Males were typically more vigilant than females, as is seen with the local Western Canada Geese.