The black-bellied whistling duck in Mexico—from traditional use to sustainable management?

Abstract

The black-bellied whistling duck Dendrocygna autumnalis is hunted and kept in captivity in Mexico. Attitudes of rural people were studied. Results show year-round hunting, including the breeding season, and egg collecting. Farm ducks are not bred but wild eggs are incubated by domestic birds. Nest-boxes were adapted to the local situation, the ducks preferring palm-trunk boxes over liana baskets. Closed boxes may attract ducks from safe nest-sites in palm trees. As people only harvest eggs and ducks and do not breed them, boxes facilitating egg harvest shoud not be introduced without simultaneous ecological education. Additional management is needed, e.g. population counts, harvest rules, breeding. Conservation can profit from present rural ecological knowledge and traditional methods. The black-bellied whistling duck is an ideal example for management, combining traditional breeding methods with the use of nest-boxes to form a basis for small ‘wild duck breeding farms’. This could have applications in Biosphere Reserves.