North American waterfowl harvest regulations are largely guided by the status of breeding populations. Nonetheless, understanding the demographics of wintering waterfowl populations can elucidate the effects of hunting pressure on population dynamics. The ring‐necked duck (Aythya collaris) breeds and winters in all North American administrative flyways and is one of the most abundant and most harvested diving ducks in the Atlantic Flyway. But few studies have investigated the winter ecology of ring‐necked ducks. We used a known‐fate analysis to estimate period survival probability using data from 87 female ring‐necked ducks marked with satellite transmitters in 2 regions of the southern Atlantic Flyway during winters of 2017–2018 and 2018–2019. Winter (128‐day) survival probability was higher for individuals in the Red Hills region of southern Georgia and northern Florida (0.875, 95% CI = 0.691–0.952) than individuals in central South Carolina (0.288, 95% CI = 0.082–0.514). We attribute the regional disparity in winter survival probabilities to differences in hunting pressure, which are reflected in the number of harvests we observed in each region. Our findings warrant further investigation into regional variation in winter survival of southern Atlantic Flyway ring‐necked ducks, and, specifically, the relationship between variable harvest pressure and winter survival and its influence on ring‐necked duck population dynamics and adaptive harvest management decisions. © 2020 The Wildlife Society.

中文翻译：

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雌性环颈鸭在南大西洋航道的冬季生存

北美水禽的收获法规主要由繁殖种群的状况决定。尽管如此，了解越冬水禽种群的人口统计资料可以阐明狩猎压力对种群动态的影响。环颈鸭（Aythya项圈）在北美所有行政飞行道中繁殖和繁殖，是大西洋飞行道中最丰富，收获最多的潜水鸭之一。但是很少有研究调查环颈鸭的冬季生态。我们使用已知的命运分析方法，使用了2017-2018年和2018-2019年冬季南部大西洋天桥2个地区的87只标有卫星发射器的环颈鸭子的数据，估算了时期的存活率。乔治亚州南部和佛罗里达州北部的红山地区个体的冬季（128天）生存概率（0.875，95％CI = 0.691–0.952）比南卡罗来纳州中部的个体（0.288，95％CI = 0.082–0.514）高）。我们将冬季生存概率的地区差异归因于狩猎压力的差异，这反映在我们观察到的每个地区的收成数量上。我们的发现值得进一步研究南部大西洋飞禽环颈鸭冬季生存的区域差异，尤其是可变收获压力与冬季生存之间的关系及其对环颈鸭种群动态和适应性收获管理决策的影响。©2020野生动物协会。