Ring-necked Duck Surgery

Dr. Glenn Olsen and Mary Anderson at work doing a surgical procedure to implant a small 1 ounce (30 gram) radio transmitter in a Ring-necked Duck. This procedure is part of a multi-year study looking at wintering Ring-necked Ducks in the southeastern US. The radio transmitter enables biologists to follow the ducks on migration to their breeding grounds in northern Canada. Early results from the first years of the study have shown that Ring-necked Ducks from Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina breed further west in Canada than had been previously thought. Information from this study may be useful to flyway councils and the US Fish and Wildlife Service in regulating this popularly hunted duck. Several publications have already resulted from this research have already been published.