V-B-28 



Conrad, W.B., Jr. 1965. A food habits study of ducks wintering on the 



lower Pee Dee and Waccamaw rivers, Georgetown, South Carolina. 

 Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual Conference of the Southeastern 

 Association of Game and Fish Commissioners, pp. 93-98. 



The study was made principally in the Pee Dee Management Area, South 

 Carolina Wildlife Resources Department, but it also included some 

 surrounding privately owned lands on the lower Pee Dee and Waccamaw 

 rivers in Georgetown County, approximately 15 miles northeast of 

 Georgetown. The most important ducks wintering along the lower Pee 

 Dee and Waccamaw rivers were mallards, green-winged teals, pintails, 

 black ducks, and wood ducks. The foods most preferred by ducks in this 

 area were aneilema, big leaf tearthumb, swamp smartweed, arrow arum berries, 

 square stem spikerush, and soft-stem bulrush. Aneilema was found to be 

 an excellent duck food in this area. Further investigation of the 

 importance of aneilema as a waterfowl food should be made to determine 

 (1) nutritional value, (2) usage in other locations, and (3) possibilities 

 of introduction into waterfowl areas where absent. Plant surveys 

 revealed that good duck food plants were much more abundant in managed 

 impoundments than in tidal marshes. Ducks were found to use diked 

 impoundments more extensively than undiked marshes. Diking, water 

 manipulation, and prescribed burning of tidal marshes will result in 

 increased production of duck foods. This study illustrates the value 

 of local food habits studies in contrast to national or continental 

 studies. (G.S.) 



Keywords: food habits, ducks. South Carolina 



V-B-29 



McGilorey, F.B. 1964. Effects of elimination of alligatorweed on 

 certain aquatic plants and the value of these plants as waterfowl 

 foods. Proceedings of the Eighteenth Annual Conference of the 

 Southeastern Association of Game and Fish Commissioners, pp. 73-79. 



The effects of elimination of alligatorweed ( Alternanthera 

 philoxeroides ) by granular silvex on the abundance of 12 species of 

 aquatic plants were studied in the Santee National Wildlife Refuge, 

 Lake Marion, South Carolina, from 1961 to 1964. Three hundred and 

 sl;(ty duck stomachs collected from hunters during the 1961 hunting 

 season were examined to determine the importance of these 12 species as 

 waterfowl food. 



Five of the 12 plant species were important food items for ducks. 

 In order of importance, they were: southern cutgrass (12 percent of 

 total volume); hydrochloa (10 percent); buttonbush (nearly 6 percent); 

 annual spikerush (nearly 4 percent); and swamp smartweed (3.7 percent). 

 Squarestem spikerush was important to pintail and mallard, and 

 Cyperus spp. was important to black duck and green-winged teal. 



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