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A drake mallard has set a speed record of 103 mph while migrating across southern Minnesota and southeast North Dakota on April 6, breaking the Cohen Wildlife Ecology Lab\u2019s previous record of 99.3 mph set on the same day. The two GPS-tracked mallard caught the same weather front that helped them reach top speeds on their return flights to Canada, but this drake\u2019s track appears to have just been reviewed by researchers\u2019 now that he\u2019s homed in on nesting grounds in Manitoba.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd just like that, our speed record is broken again!\u201d the Lab wrote in an Instagram post<\/a> Monday. \u201cHe started his spring migration on February 2nd, which is pretty early for our mallards (our average migration initiation date is usually around mid-March). He took his time moving north, frequently stopping at wetlands throughout Illinois, Missouri, and Iowa until he caught that big tailwind. He has finally settled down in a network of wetlands in western Manitoba where he is hopefully keeping an eye on his nesting hen.\u201d<\/p>\n April 24, 2024<\/strong> \u2014<\/strong> Spring waterfowl migrations are in full swing as millions of ducks, geese, and other species depart the southern U.S. and Central America and head toward Canada to live out the warm months. One drake mallard fitted with a GPS tracker from the Cohen Wildlife Ecology Lab at Tennessee Tech broke a lab record on April 6 by reaching a top speed of 99.3 miles per hour somewhere between southern Minnesota and the Canadian border.<\/p>\n For context, that means the duck was flying as fast as famous pitcher Aroldis Chapman\u2019s fastball and twice as fast as the world\u2019s fastest land mammal, the cheetah, can run. The Cohen Wildlife Lab posted the feat<\/a> to its various social media accounts Tuesday, along with a map of the greenhead\u2019s northwesterly route. <\/p>\n Anyone familiar with the four main migratory flyways of North America will notice that the drake has also traveled from the eastern side of the Mississippi Flyway to the very western edge of the Central Flyway, and will likely end up somewhere in the Pacific Flyway before reaching its summering grounds.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMost of our birds have made it to the prairies, but this drake mallard is leading the pack,\u201d a post on the lab\u2019s Facebook page reads. \u201cHe started his spring migration on March 14 but took a three week break just outside of St. Louis while the weather warmed up. He took off again on April 6 and covered 1000 miles in 29 hours while also taking an 8-hour break in southern Minnesota. ESE winds gusting over 50 mph on the evening of April 6 pushed him 600 miles from southern Minnesota across the Canadian border in just 8 hours. With this crazy tailwind his top speed recorded on GPS was 99.3 mph!\u201d<\/p>\n Covering 600 miles in 8 hours means the duck maintained an average speed of 75 mph during that time. The lab\u2019s principal investigator and assistant professor of wildlife ecology and management Bradley Cohen pointed out in a reply to a commenter that mallards usually migrate at an altitude of 4,000 to 5,000 feet at night. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re studying the movements during the annual cycle of waterfowl, and trying to determine the importance of different habitat types for mallards,\u201d Cohen tells Outdoor Life<\/em> of his lab. \u201cAt the same time, we\u2019re trying to understand how mallards balance hunting risk with getting into these really profitable, high-energy areas like flooded corn, and what the consequences of those decisions are.\u201d<\/p>\n While this particular drake broke the lab\u2019s record, it\u2019s not unheard of for ducks to travel at these breakneck speeds when they get good wind at their backs. One pintail hen flew from eastern Russia to California<\/a> \u2014 some 2,000 miles \u2014 in 25 hours, maintaining an average speed of 80 mph as it traversed the width of the Bering Sea. The next day, it crossed three flyways and landed in Louisiana.\u00a0<\/p>\n