Waterfowlers throughout the nation have been ready for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to launch its 2022 Waterfowl Inhabitants Standing Report, however the outcomes aren’t precisely encouraging. The general inhabitants is simply down 4 p.c from the long-term common, however went down 12 p.c since 2019.
The annual publication, now in its 67th 12 months, lays out the continent’s estimated populations of 10 waterfowl species. This 12 months’s duck depend was additionally extremely anticipated as a result of it’s the primary full duck depend the USFWS has performed since 2019. The onset of the pandemic in 2020 led to 2 straight years and not using a depend as a result of journey restrictions in Canada, and duck hunters throughout the nation have eagerly awaited this 12 months’s outcomes. The outcomes are as follows:
Regardless that the outcomes fall in need of what biologists have been hoping for, current drought occasions make the numbers moderately unsurprising. Seven of the ten species are down in numbers for the reason that 2019 depend. Blue-winged teal and redheads each noticed progress and the scaup inhabitants didn’t see any main adjustments.
“The whole duck estimate within the Conventional Survey Space was the bottom in practically 20 years,” Geese Limitless chief scientist Dr. Steve Adair stated in a press launch. “The drop in duck numbers displays the implications of low manufacturing brought on by a number of years of prairie drought, together with 2021, which was one of the extreme and widespread in practically 4 a long time.”
High quality habitat vary went in the identical course as total inhabitants depend. Swaths of Montana, South Dakota, southern Alberta, and southern Saskatchewan transitioned from being thought-about “wonderful,” “good,” and “truthful” to “poor.”
Regardless of a number of the dips in numbers, vibrant spots nonetheless shine by way of. In response to the report, “duck numbers within the jap Dakotas are…up 49% over the long-term common” and “in southern Manitoba, the overall duck inhabitants estimate was 35% above the 2019 estimate and just like the long-term common.” Habitats in elements of North Dakota and southern Manitoba noticed enhancements as effectively.
“This 12 months’s survey revealed what many anticipated, decrease breeding duck populations partly as end result of the drought we’ve skilled the previous couple of years,” Geese Limitless CEO Adam Putnam stated. “Whereas we by no means wish to see these declines, we all know that prairie drought can improve wetland productiveness and units the stage for waterfowl success when the water returns, a lot because it did this spring in elements of the prairie.”
