Wildlife biologists commonly use marked individuals to estimate population size and vital rates. If markers are lost or become too illegible to be reported (which we define as functional loss), population size and vital rates derived from marked individuals could be biased. We double‐banded 4,990 lesser scaup (Aythya affinis) and 1,429 redheads (A. americana) with a traditionally used band made of aluminum, plus another band made of incoloy designed to be more resistant to wear. Banding took place at 10 late‐summer banding stations in the northcentral United States and Canada during 2009 and 2010 and during spring at Pool 19 on the Mississippi River, Iowa, USA, during 2009–2011. We then examined bands recovered from hunter‐shot birds to assess wear of paired bands. We also conducted band‐recovery analyses to test for differences in band retention and reporting rates between birds banded with aluminum versus hard metal bands. Band wear assessments indicated that incoloy bands lost zero mass over time and showed no effects of wear. Although no bands were lost, aluminum bands showed significant mass loss and wear over time. For double‐banded lesser scaup recovered in their fourth year after banding, 71.9% of aluminum bands had contact information that was completely unreadable, compared with only 12.5% for those worn by redheads. Based on our recent double‐band recovery data, up to 34% of lesser scaup bands would be recovered during the fifth through eighth hunting seasons of band wear. Band wear affected estimated recovery rates of both species, with stronger effects in lesser scaup. Our results indicate that use of aluminum bands resulted in a substantial loss of information; thus, banders should only use bands made of hard metal alloys (e.g., incoloy or stainless steel), and discontinue all use of aluminum bands for these species and other diving ducks with sparse recovery data. Future demographic analyses using banding data for species with excessive band wear and low numbers of band‐recoveries should account for band type and functional band loss. © 2020 The Wildlife Society.

中文翻译：

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乐队的磨损及其对潜水鸭恢复和生存估计的影响

野生生物生物学家通常使用标记的个体来估计种群数量和生命率。如果标记丢失或变得难以辨认以至于无法报告（我们将其定义为功能丧失），则来自标记个体的人口规模和生命率可能会产生偏差。我们将4,990根小鳞茎（Aythya affinis）和1,429根红发（A.），并使用传统的铝制表带，再加上另一种由耐高温合金制成的表带，设计成更耐磨损。在2009年至2010年期间，在美国中北部和加拿大中北部的10个夏末期带站进行了分组，并于2009-2011年春季在美国爱荷华州密西西比河的19号池中进行了分组。然后，我们检查了从猎鸟身上回收的带，以评估成对带的磨损情况。我们还进行了带恢复分析，以测试带铝和硬质金属带的禽类在带保留率和报告率方面的差异。乐队的磨损评估表明，随着时间的流逝，Incoloy乐队的质量损失为零，并且没有磨损影响。尽管没有损失任何条带，但铝条随着时间的推移表现出明显的质量损失和磨损。对于双带小缠腰带，在缠结后的第四年恢复了71。9％的铝带的联系信息是完全不可读的，相比之下，红发佩戴者只有12.5％。根据我们最近的双波段恢复数据，在第五至第八个捕猎季节中，最多可恢复34％的较小速成带。乐队的磨损影响了两个物种的估计恢复率，在较小的树荫下效果更强。我们的结果表明，使用铝带会导致大量信息丢失。因此，绑带者应仅使用由硬质合金制成的绑带（例如，铬镍铁合金或不锈钢），而对于这些物种和其他潜水鸭，如果恢复数据稀疏，则应停止使用铝带。对于带过度磨损和带回收率低的物种，使用带数据进行未来的人口统计分析应考虑带类型和功能带损失。©2020野生动物协会。