I had gone to Gambles pond again on March 25 to observe the behaviour of the animals around.
I have decided to focus on 3 species:
The Mallard duck (Anas platyrhynchos)
The Redhead Duck (Aythya americana)
The Canada Goose (Branta canadensis)
While I may focus more on the Mallard duck – I think that collecting data from the other two species would provide good data for consideration. I am interested in a couple of factors about the ducks in particular. Why do they seem to avoid one section of the pond and do they change how they behave during different times of the day or at different temperatures. As I saw in my previous blog posts, I noticed a small animal that looked like a muskrat swimming around in the shallow section. Perhaps the main reason the ducks are more prevalent in the centre of the pond is to avoid potential predators. However, there is a walking path, and ducks seem to migrate there when people are present. This may be to get food from people. So to investigate I will have to stay away from the edge of the water.
I hypothesize that: Anas platyrhynchos prefer to be in the open of a body of water.
I predict that: The number of Anas platyrhynchos in the middle of the pond will be higher than at the edges.
The predictor variables: land, shallow water with foliage and deep water (categorical).
The response variables: Number of Anas platyrhynchos present (continuous).
Attached are my field book notes: Ongoing Field Observations_Drayden Kopp
After reading your blog post, I do think this is an interesting topic of study. With the information given, I do believe the hypothesis and prediction you have come up with are clear. However, I am curious as to how you will be going about conducting this study and “measuring” all the activity. Is there going to be a certain approximation of the pond that will be considered the middle? I am curious if you will be considering using some sort of point count strategy for this study (since you are working with mobile organisms). That could be an efficient way of keeping track of the species, perhaps. As I continued to read you post, I noticed you had two variables that could be potentially causing the ducks to be either in the center of the pond/on the outskirts. I find this very interesting since there may be multiple reason the ducks are conducting themselves in this manner; there will be lots to consider and note for this experiment. Overall, I think this is very interesting and I look forward to following up on this study.
Keep up the good work, best of luck with your studies.