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By Julia Hettiger

UTEP Marketing and Communications

UTEP professor Philip Lavretsky, Ph.D. has launched a new project called duckDNA in partnership with Ducks Unlimited. This project will allow hunters to mail in tissue samples of harvested ducks, allowing Lavretsky and his team to track duck biodiversity throughout the United States on a larger scale. This work in conservation has largely included ducks and takes him to the wild, as pictured here, where he works hands-on with these feathered friends.

Philip Lavretsky, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, has launched citizen science project duckDNA to help track duck biodiversity in the United States and identify potential conservation threats. A partnership between The Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é of Texas at El Paso and Ducks Unlimited, a nonprofit focused on wetland conservation, duckDNA allows hunters to mail in duck tissue samples that are then profiled to determine their genetic makeup.

Duck conservation is critical to preserving natural habitats and ecological systems. By tracking the biodiversity of species in the United States, researchers like Lavretsky are better equipped to identify issues that present a threat to conservation. 

“There’s no shortage of unique research being conducted at UTEP,” said Robert Kirken, Ph.D., dean of the UTEP College of Science. “Dr. Lavretsky’s impressive work is helping to change the face of ecology and conservation by tracking biodiversity in ducks, a creature we must protect because its impact in nature can’t be understated.” 

DuckDNA officially launched in 2023, with 300 hunters throughout the lower 48 states invited to participate, though over 1,000 applied. The project operates similarly to familial genealogical sites like 23andMe and ancestry.com. Participants receive a kit that includes five sample containers, alcohol wipes, prepaid postage and other helpful items. They then collect tissue samples from harvested ducks that they mail to Lavretsky’s lab, where he and his team perform genetic analyses of the samples. Hunters receive the genetic makeup information through their duckDNA account, certifying the purity or parentage of the ducks they sampled, and Lavretsky and his lab are able to utilize the data collected for future research and conservation projects.

“We’re trying to do this citizen science project at the landscape level and time intervals that have never been attempted before,” Lavretsky said. “We’re asking the hunters out there in North America to become hunter-scientists and help us to better understand these ducks that we love.”

The first 150 sample kits were distributed in early October 2023. The second batch will be sent out in late November 2023 to accommodate for differences in hunting seasons across the United States. Lavretsky and his lab team are just starting to receive samples during this pilot year.

“The whole thing is something that I’ve only imagined we could do, [which is to] basically study these different species at the landscape level, something that would be impossible for me unless I hired thousands of people to be out there,” Lavretsky said.

Once they receive the samples, Lavretsky and his team conduct association studies in which they look for genetic variants in a wide sample set to help them determine if certain factors found in these birds are flukes or traits of the species.

“It’s understanding [facts like] why is that species [in that location] at that time,” Lavretsky said. “Is there something genetically associated with the habitat or the weather or anything like that?”

One particular issue that this project will help Lavretsky study is hybrid-domestic duck species, which are the result of wild ducks and domesticated ducks mating and reproducing. These hybrids can be a threat to conservation and may have features that aren’t natural. For example, many of the ducks inhabiting Ascarate Lake in El Paso have small puffs of hair on their heads or strange coloring and patterns. These traits are not naturally occurring in nature, Lavretsky said, and are the result of the domestication process.

“[Hybridization] is causing some serious conservation issues,” Lavretsky said. “By looking at it [from a] landscape level across time, we can look at the ebbs and flows of these situations or scenarios. On top of that, we can make some nice maps where we’re looking at hotspots of hybridization and what can be done in those locations to mitigate that.”

It may sound counterintuitive that duck hunting and conservation can go hand-in-hand, but Lavretsky says this is a misconception. Many confuse hunting for poaching, which happens illegally and in spite of conservation efforts, typically involving animals that are endangered. But traditional hunting, when done legally and appropriately, actually aids conservation efforts.

“There’s the Pittman-Robertson Act, which [ensures] tax dollars earned off of guns, ammo, bows, anything used for hunting [go toward] wildlife and wildlands conservation,” Lavretsky said. 

Lavretsky himself is an avid duck hunter, following in the footsteps of his father, who hunted for ducks in Russia, where Lavretsky and his family originated. They immigrated to California when Lavretsky was three, but his father continued his hunting tradition with Lavretsky. This is where his passion and love for ducks was born.

Lavretsky earned his Ph.D. in Environmental Science from Wright State Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é in Ohio in 2014. He held positions with the Smithsonian, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Geological Survey and several universities before he started at UTEP. Here, he runs the Population and Evolutionary Genetics Lab. His research is focused on wildlife genetics and conservation, and while ducks are his primary focus, he has published studies on plants, fish, invertebrates and many other bird species.

“I always tell everybody you need to be passionate about the question, the organism or both,” Lavretsky said. “I’m passionate about the questions I ask, but more so about the organisms.”

Looking to the future, Lavretsky and his team are working on securing funding for a second year of working with hunters through duckDNA. To learn more about this project, visit . To learn more about the Lavretsky lab, visit www.utep.edu/science/lavretskylab/.