Temporal variation in survival and recovery rates of lesser scaup: A response

We recently analyzed long‐term (1951–2011) continental band‐recovery data from lesser scaup ( Aythya affinis ) and demonstrated that harvest rates declined through time, but annual survival rates exhibited no such trends; moreover, annual harvest and survival rates were uncorrelated for all age‐sex classes. We therefore concluded that declining fecundity was most likely responsible for recent population declines, rather than changes in harvest...