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I received this from the Tennessee Wildlife Federation Blue Ribbon Waterfowl Panel. Pretty interesting.
BIRD'S-EYE VIEW
Research shows mallards are not falling prey to hunters' tactics
Sunday, February 18, 2007
By Bob Marshall
This just in: Ducks are smarter than hunters.
That's the major headline developing after a two-year study by two LSU graduate students on the movements of mallards wintering in Louisiana.
Although many waterfowlers have complained that the recent string of poor seasons was because of factors beyond their control -- a paucity of ducks, a change to nocturnal habits by the birds and the safe heavens provided by state and federal refuges being off-limits to hunting -- preliminary results from research by Bruce Davis and Paul Link revealed something else.
Mallards, at least, have been around in basically the same numbers, have been using open lands instead of refuges and have been traveling during hours. They just aren't falling for hunters' tricks.
"Many times we would track birds to sites right next to hunters set up in blinds with (decoy) spreads including spinning wing decoys, and the hunters never knew they were there," Link said. "The birds just weren't falling for whatever the hunters were trying."
Working under the direction of LSU professor Al Afton, Davis and Link placed radio tracking devices in small backpacks on almost 400 mallard hens trapped in southwest and northeast Louisiana during the winters of
2005 and 2006.
Using laptop computers, they were able to travel across the two regions tracking the movements of the birds. Similar research will be conducted on gadwalls and mottled ducks in the next two winters, Afton said.
The research was prompted, in part, by growing frustration of hunters because of plummeting success the past six years in what has long been one of the most productive waterfowling grounds on the continent. For decades Louisiana hunters led the nation in the number of ducks killed, often topping 3 million birds, more than the entire population of ducks on the Atlantic Flyway. But that began to wane in the late 1990s.
Biologists and hunters have looked at several theories for the decline, including the disruption of traditional migration patterns caused by warming winter weather patterns along the Mississippi Flyway, degradation of coastal habitats by tropical storms and the impact of hunting pressure.
The waterfowling community mined some insight into the trend from a similar tracking study Afton conducted on pintails a decade ago. That research shed light on the impact of hunting pressure by revealing pintails quickly changed their habits after opening day. Once started, the birds became primarily nocturnal, retreating to the safety of protected refuges during daylight and venturing into hunted areas after sundown, when hunting had stopped. It also revealed that pintails on the Louisiana coast often would travel more than 400 miles in a day in response to weather changes that promised better feeding conditions as far away as Arkansas.
But the key preliminary findings by Davis and Link on winter movement of mallards might be even more surprising:
-- Mallards traveled in much smaller numbers than pintails, staying in groups of less than eight birds. Pintails often traveled in flights of more than a dozen.
-- Hunting pressure had little affect on mallards' activities. The birds remained primarily diurnal, and continued to primarily use lands open to hunting.
-- In northeast Louisiana, mallards preferred to feed in flooded timber, avoiding the open water where most hunters tend to set up. The smaller numbers meant they were more able to land in smaller patches of open water in the flooded timber. It also meant they were less likely to be attracted to large decoy spreads.
-- In southwest Louisiana, mallards tended to remain in the marsh, preferring that habitat for foraging over the flooded rice and other agricultural fields favored by pintails and other species. Mallards surprised the researchers last year by sticking to the marsh even after its apparent suitability had been reduced by the saltwater tides from tropical storms.
-- Perhaps most surprising of all, most mallards did not leave Louisiana until mid-March, and some stayed until the first week of April.
It has been accepted wisdom even among biologists that mallards left the state by mid-February and made a gradual return to nesting grounds in the Dakotas and prairie Canada. Link and Davis found them staying later, and often returning in one hurried flight.
"I followed one back to South Dakota, and I was traveling 70-miles per hour, but the bird beat me," Link said.
The findings will be embarrassing to some hunters who have been demanding that state and federal wildlife agencies open refuges previously off limits to hunting. They claimed the protected areas were contributed to the recent poor seasons because birds were crowding onto the properties in response to hunting pressure.
"That just wasn't the case," Afton said. "They didn't turn nocturnal.
They didn't use refuges as a way of avoiding hunters. They continued to use areas open to hunting. In many cases they were very close to groups of hunters.
But they were moving in small groups. They were very adept at finding sources of food in areas where hunters just were not located."
Davis and Link said they often would see birds ignoring hunters'
greatest efforts, including motorized, moving-wing decoys and expert calling. The ineffectiveness of hunters and the feeding tactics of the mallards might well be adjustments to hunting pressure, Afton said. When birds find an effective strategy, they stay with it.
"This could be something that has been developing over the years, and hunters just haven't noticed it, and have yet to adapt," he said.
Link said his education in duck marshes of his native North Dakota prepared him for the findings.
"I was taught a long time ago that one of two things happens when a gun goes off in a duck marsh," said Link. "Either a duck falls out of the sky , or it flies away a smarter duck."
The research shows that these bird brains, at least mallards, have been smarter than Louisiana hunters.
BIRD'S-EYE VIEW
Research shows mallards are not falling prey to hunters' tactics
Sunday, February 18, 2007
By Bob Marshall
This just in: Ducks are smarter than hunters.
That's the major headline developing after a two-year study by two LSU graduate students on the movements of mallards wintering in Louisiana.
Although many waterfowlers have complained that the recent string of poor seasons was because of factors beyond their control -- a paucity of ducks, a change to nocturnal habits by the birds and the safe heavens provided by state and federal refuges being off-limits to hunting -- preliminary results from research by Bruce Davis and Paul Link revealed something else.
Mallards, at least, have been around in basically the same numbers, have been using open lands instead of refuges and have been traveling during hours. They just aren't falling for hunters' tricks.
"Many times we would track birds to sites right next to hunters set up in blinds with (decoy) spreads including spinning wing decoys, and the hunters never knew they were there," Link said. "The birds just weren't falling for whatever the hunters were trying."
Working under the direction of LSU professor Al Afton, Davis and Link placed radio tracking devices in small backpacks on almost 400 mallard hens trapped in southwest and northeast Louisiana during the winters of
2005 and 2006.
Using laptop computers, they were able to travel across the two regions tracking the movements of the birds. Similar research will be conducted on gadwalls and mottled ducks in the next two winters, Afton said.
The research was prompted, in part, by growing frustration of hunters because of plummeting success the past six years in what has long been one of the most productive waterfowling grounds on the continent. For decades Louisiana hunters led the nation in the number of ducks killed, often topping 3 million birds, more than the entire population of ducks on the Atlantic Flyway. But that began to wane in the late 1990s.
Biologists and hunters have looked at several theories for the decline, including the disruption of traditional migration patterns caused by warming winter weather patterns along the Mississippi Flyway, degradation of coastal habitats by tropical storms and the impact of hunting pressure.
The waterfowling community mined some insight into the trend from a similar tracking study Afton conducted on pintails a decade ago. That research shed light on the impact of hunting pressure by revealing pintails quickly changed their habits after opening day. Once started, the birds became primarily nocturnal, retreating to the safety of protected refuges during daylight and venturing into hunted areas after sundown, when hunting had stopped. It also revealed that pintails on the Louisiana coast often would travel more than 400 miles in a day in response to weather changes that promised better feeding conditions as far away as Arkansas.
But the key preliminary findings by Davis and Link on winter movement of mallards might be even more surprising:
-- Mallards traveled in much smaller numbers than pintails, staying in groups of less than eight birds. Pintails often traveled in flights of more than a dozen.
-- Hunting pressure had little affect on mallards' activities. The birds remained primarily diurnal, and continued to primarily use lands open to hunting.
-- In northeast Louisiana, mallards preferred to feed in flooded timber, avoiding the open water where most hunters tend to set up. The smaller numbers meant they were more able to land in smaller patches of open water in the flooded timber. It also meant they were less likely to be attracted to large decoy spreads.
-- In southwest Louisiana, mallards tended to remain in the marsh, preferring that habitat for foraging over the flooded rice and other agricultural fields favored by pintails and other species. Mallards surprised the researchers last year by sticking to the marsh even after its apparent suitability had been reduced by the saltwater tides from tropical storms.
-- Perhaps most surprising of all, most mallards did not leave Louisiana until mid-March, and some stayed until the first week of April.
It has been accepted wisdom even among biologists that mallards left the state by mid-February and made a gradual return to nesting grounds in the Dakotas and prairie Canada. Link and Davis found them staying later, and often returning in one hurried flight.
"I followed one back to South Dakota, and I was traveling 70-miles per hour, but the bird beat me," Link said.
The findings will be embarrassing to some hunters who have been demanding that state and federal wildlife agencies open refuges previously off limits to hunting. They claimed the protected areas were contributed to the recent poor seasons because birds were crowding onto the properties in response to hunting pressure.
"That just wasn't the case," Afton said. "They didn't turn nocturnal.
They didn't use refuges as a way of avoiding hunters. They continued to use areas open to hunting. In many cases they were very close to groups of hunters.
But they were moving in small groups. They were very adept at finding sources of food in areas where hunters just were not located."
Davis and Link said they often would see birds ignoring hunters'
greatest efforts, including motorized, moving-wing decoys and expert calling. The ineffectiveness of hunters and the feeding tactics of the mallards might well be adjustments to hunting pressure, Afton said. When birds find an effective strategy, they stay with it.
"This could be something that has been developing over the years, and hunters just haven't noticed it, and have yet to adapt," he said.
Link said his education in duck marshes of his native North Dakota prepared him for the findings.
"I was taught a long time ago that one of two things happens when a gun goes off in a duck marsh," said Link. "Either a duck falls out of the sky , or it flies away a smarter duck."
The research shows that these bird brains, at least mallards, have been smarter than Louisiana hunters.
