Memphis, July 3, 2003—The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today released the breeding duck population and May pond numbers from its 2003 survey, conducted each year in cooperation with the Canadian Wildlife Service. Numbers of birds and habitat conditions have improved greatly over what was observed in 2002. Overall duck numbers are at 36.2 million birds, up from the 31.2 million birds estimated in 2002. The index for breeding habitat conditions stood at 5.2 million ponds, 91% above the 2.7 million counted in last year.
“These results pretty well confirm what our staff and others in the breeding areas have been observing this spring,” says Dr. Bruce Batt, DU’s Chief Biologist. DU’s Executive Vice President, Don Young, notes, “This is great news following the extremely dry winter that we had across these same areas. The extraordinary snow and rains that started in April have provided much-needed moisture that will benefit waterfowl and the farming community. That precipitation, along with habitat put in place by DU and other groups and vital federal habitat programs like CRP are combining to produce an effective recipe for duck production.”
“The fall flights should be improved as a result of these conditions” notes Young, “but as always, hunting success in any given location is very much affected by regional and local weather conditions. For many duck hunters, especially in the southern U.S., a good old-fashioned winter would be a welcome change after unusually warm and wet winters during the past two seasons kept many birds from migrating very far south.” Each of the 10 most common species of duck is up from last year. Mallards are at 7.9 million birds, relative to the 7.5 million counted in 2002.
“We are especially glad to see the jump in pintail numbers by 43% from 1.8 million to 2.6 million,” says Batt. “Conditions on the prairies were just right when they arrived. So, unlike the pattern of recent years, they appear to be putting in a very good nesting effort.” Pintails remain of great concern as they are still 39% below their long-term average. Nevertheless, this relief from the recent trends is welcome.
The other species of concern is scaup. Their numbers are up slightly from 3.5 million to 3.7 million birds. Both pintails and scaup are the subjects of major new research efforts. DU and many partners in the U.S. and Canada have developed extensive new management efforts to resolve the pintail problem. But the cause of the scaup decline is not yet fully understood and new management approaches are not yet readily available.
Waterfowl managers have adopted the population goals of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan against which to measure the progress of management efforts across the continent. Of the 10 most common duck species, only the pintail and scaup are seriously below the Plan’s goals, by 54% and 40%, respectively. Wigeon are up by 9% but still 14% below goal. All others, including mallards, are above or very near the goals in 2003.
Gadwall numbers are up 14% over last year and continue to be well above the goal, and green-winged teal are up by 15%. Northern shovelers showed a very large increase to 3.6 million birds, 82% above their goal. Relative to last year, the other two common diving ducks, canvasbacks and redheads, are up by 15% and 13%, respectively—a welcome change from steady declines during the previous two years.
Blue-winged teal are at 5.5 million birds, a number that will be welcomed by hunters that participate in the September teal season, because a longer season is prescribed when the population is above 4.7 million birds.
“These increases are mostly the result of much better conditions on the prairies, which stimulated the birds to stop and breed,” says Batt. “Upland nesting habitat is the other critical element that drives nesting success. It will be improved this year because of the generous rains but, for the long-term, we still have a great deal to do to improve and secure improved nesting conditions, especially in Canada.” DU continues to work diligently to resolve those issues and is seeing promising improvements in some areas as agricultural policies and practices change in ways that are more beneficial for waterfowl.
“Two exciting initiatives in this regard arise from DU’s leadership in improving Canadian upland cover,” explains Young. “ The first is an expanded winter wheat program, and the second is a new conservation cover program developed with agriculture Canada.”
With more than a million supporters, Ducks Unlimited is the world’s largest and most effective wetland and waterfowl conservation organization. The United States alone has lost more than half of its original wetlands – nature’s most productive ecosystems – and continues to lose more than 100,000 wetland acres each year.
Contact: Laura Houseal (901) 758-3764 lhouseal@ducks.org
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