Popular Press
As a scientist, and especially in the conservation field, it is increasingly important to make sure the science not only gets to the managers of the species, but to the general public. More and better science can happen when the public supports it! Translating the science into something a common person can relate to is the best medicine for good science. My lab is not only devoted to understanding evolution and using the knowledge for better conservation, but translating and relating it to the people. Towards this end, I do try to get the research out to news outlines, popular magazines, blogs…and even podcasts! Below is a list of successful efforts:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) In 2020, my team broke the story about the impact that game-farm mallard releases are having on wild mallard populations in North America. Published in Molecular Ecology and titled, “Assessing changes in genomic divergence following a century of human‐mediated secondary contact among wild and captive‐bred ducks.” In collaboration with the Smithsonian, my team combined modern genetic and ancient DNA techniques on contemporary and historical (1860-1915) mallard samples to establish that the release of game-farm mallards over the last 100 years has fundamentally changed the genetic makeup of eastern North American mallards. In fact, we establish that whereas mallards are in western North America remain genetically pure and similar to historical samples, those in eastern North America are best described at game-farm x wild mallard hybrid swarms. Given that domestic mallards have MANY traits unsuitable in the wild, we hypothesize that the interbreeding between these two may explain the last 20 years of mallard population declines felt in eastern North America. Given that the mallard is one of the most well recognized ducks, and their importance in the hunting community, we have had a great deal of interest in this story! In particular, I am most keen in engaging the hunting community to determine the importance of knowing that their #1 duck is genetically healthy! In addition to a few press releases, the story was featured in the May 2020 issue of the Duck’s Unlimited Magazine, Summer 2020 issue of the California Waterfowl Association Magazine (sorry can't put this up here but feel free to email plavretsky@utep.edu if you want a copy). Probably a lot more fun for me were the podcasts that I was invited to do. My first ever podcast was with Ramsey Russel and his GetDucks Podcast, and another that I was fortunate to do with Mike Brasher and his Duck’s Unlimited Podcast. Since I continue to chat on the topic whenever possible, with the lst of places you can hear us chat about all things mallard and mallard-like duck genetics:
02/23/2021 – 2 Part Public Pursuit Waterfowl Podcast: PART 1 & PART 2
10/01/2020 - Cast & Blast Florida Podcast
9/16-18/2020 - 3 Part Ducks Unlimited Podcast: PART 1, PART 2, & PART 3
06/21/2020 - GETDUCKS Podcast
More recently, my team confirmed the ever present and growing threat of game-farm mallards on world-wide mallard populations, published in Communications Biology and titled, “The meaning of wild: Genetic and adaptive
consequences from large-scale releases of domestic mallards.” In here, we showcase that domestic breed known as the game-farm mallard is indeed interbreeding with wild mallard populations. Regions where game-farm mallards are released in mass -- the Atlantic flyway and Great Lakes Regions of the USA -- we are seeing population declines! My team is now investigating mechanism tied to these genetics that may explain declining populations. This evolving story has been featured on a wide number of podcasts:
08/03/2023 - The Big Honker Podcast
6/13/2023 - Ducks Unlimited Podcast
5/10/2023 - The HuntScience Podcast
04/25/2023 - The Big Honker Podcast
03/27/2023 - GETDUCKS Podcast
2/2/2023 - Ducks Unlimited Podcast
More importantly, our work has led to a new partnership between Ducks Unlimited, Inc and my lab coined as duckDNA! We are calling all waterfowl hunters to become hunter scientisits and the largest citizen science project ever attempted for waterfowl genetic conservation! You can learn more and sign up here: www.duckDNA.com , or in the following podcasts:
12/07/2023 - GETDUCKS Podcast
10/30/2023 – MeatEater Podcast
10/27/2023 - The Southern Roost Podcast
10/02/2023 - The Big Honker Podcast
09/29/2023 - GETDUCKS Podcast
09/28/2023 - Ducks Unlimited Podcast
AND see us on TV!
01/23/2023 - GETDUCKS TV
12/19/2023 - DU NATION TV
12/13/2023 - DU NATION TV
11/23/2023 - DU NATION TV
(2) We had a good bit of interest regarding our 2019 Molecular Ecology paper entitled "Persistence of an endangered native duck, feral mallards, and multiple hybrid swarms across the main Hawaiian Islands." The paper revolves around identifying the last remaining genetically pure Hawaiian duck population on Kauai, and the identification of Hawaiian duck x domestic mallard hybrid swarms on all Islands. Once widespread throughout the Hawaiian Islands, Hawaiian ducks were extirpated from all Islands but Kauai. Though captive breeding programs and re-introduction efforts were attempted throughout the 1980s, our work shows that these efforts ultimately failed due to not dealing with then established populations of feral mallards. In the end, hybridization with feral mallards over the next 20 years resulted in hybrid swarms everywhere where re-introductions were attempted! This really shows that conservation cannot be successful without identifying the true threat to the species. Thankfully we have pure Hawaiian ducks on Kauai if managers ever want to try their hand at re-establishing Hawaiian ducks....though, better take care of that feral mallard problem first! Check out the press and blog links!
(3) Although we are in our preliminary writing stage, the data coming out of our New Zealand project is getting the folks in New Zealand Excited! Without giving it all away, my team travelled to New Zealand in 2018 and collected mallards, New Zealand grey ducks, and their putative hybrids throughout the North and South Islands. After genetically assessing over 600 birds, we are able to conclude that (1) although, only 6% of our dataset and largely confined to high elevation remote areas, pure New Zealand grey ducks exist!, (2) mallards show distinct genetic signatures between North and South Islands of New Zealand and their source is domestic, and (3) the present grey duck x mallard hybrid swarm is largely confined to agricultural areas and tend to genetically cluster closer to mallards. My PhD student, Josh Brown is in the midst of getting better analyses to really determine where pure grey ducks like to exist so that New Zealand game and fish may better conserve them in the future. A popular article outlining these findings was featured in the New Zealand 2020 hunting regulations for their hunting community to enjoy! Stay tuned on this story…
(4) Parterned with Texas Parks & Wildlife (TPWD), my team is looking into whether mottled ducks of coastal Texas habitats are declining or simply shifting ranges into more interior habitat. My team is conducting genetic ancestry analyses of birds collected along the coast and the counties within Texa's brush country. We are targetting any potentional mallards, mottled ducks, Mexican ducks, and of course any potential hybrids we may find. To date, we have processed ~150 samples thanks to TPWD and private individuals!...and we are finding some very interesting results. In short, we are indeed finding that mottled ducks are pushing westward into interior brush country, but so are Mexican ducks moving eastward! AND there is a couple hundred mile location where the two are meeting and breeding in what we are describing a recently established secondary contact zone! The results are not only dbeing directly applied to identify locations where populations are going to be counted to understand and estimate trends for mottled ducks, but now the question is what to do with these hybrids...stay tuned! BUT below are a couple podcasts on the topic!
11/06/2023 - The Southern Roost Podcast
07/01/2022 – The Fowl Talk Podcast
10/28/2021 - GETDUCKS Podcast