This post is a day late and is a brief departure from the Antarctica travelogue as Edin and I spent yesterday documenting part of the Mallard Duck Research Project being done by Fish and Game New Zealand. Edin has been asked to cover a number of research projects and has previously documented a Sheetweb Spider project and a Soil sampling project, but this was the first time that I have been lucky enough to accompany her as photographic transport so-ordinator.

The process involved the trapping of ducks with the hens being taken for biometeric measurements, blood sampling and implantation of radio transmitters to allow their tracking over the coming year. Males were banded and released. The operation was at Peter Shaw’s Waikato property and we had a lovely sunny winter day for it. Fish and Game officer, Dave Klee and PhD student Jenn Sheppard performed the implantation surgery on the ducks and it was interesting to watch the procedure in their mobile surgical theatre set up in a horse float. After a recovery period the ducks were released and flew off to continue their lives with a story of alien abduction to share with their friends. One of the ducks was a recapture from exactly a year previously which was exciting. Her transmitter battery had died and she was released without having to undergo more surgery. See the links after the photos for more info on this mallard duck research project.

All photos taken with a Fuji XT1 and 27-55mm lens or Fuji X100s except the top image of Edin releasing the duck which was with her Nikon D700 and Sigma 24-104mm f4 lens.

More information on this research is available on the Fish and Game website and the following video also adds insight to the project.