Predators negatively influence duck recruitment in grassland ecosystems.
Managers are in search of methods, particularly nonlethal methods, for reducing nest depredation. We conducted this study on 24 areas managed for wildlife production in the Prairie Pothole Region of central North Dakota during 1993-1994. In 1994, habitat conditions were optimal, and ducks nested persistently into the summer when nest success rates of food-provisioned areas and control areas differed by only 5 percentage points. Thus, although skunks and other mammalian predators seem to have responded positively to food provisioning, nest depredations overall did not change. Provision of supplemental food apparently has limited value for managing depredation of upland duck nests in the Prairie Pothole Region where predator communities are complex.