Establishing hunting regulations and allowable harvest of mallards in the United States

As a major part of establishing hunting regulations each year in the United States, data for the mallard ( A m platyrhymhos) are examined extensively to estimate the effect of various harvest strategies on the breeding population the following spring. This requires estimates of the breeding-population level and of the production, harvest, and mortality rates. Predictions made at the time hunting regulations are established have been in general agreement with more reliable estimates made after the hunting season when data from banding, kill, and wing surveys are available.