November, ig44 



Bellrose: Duck. Populations and Kill 



363 



bands were not turned in because the 

 hunters finding them feared apprehen- 

 sion. 



Data presented in table 13 show that 

 even when wood ducks were given com- 

 plete legal protection a significant pro- 

 portion of the population was killed by 

 hunters. There was apparently a de- 

 crease in the proportion killed in 1941, 

 although, for the first time since corn- 



table 11. It is evident that over the 

 nation, even with a one in bag or pos- 

 session limit, wood ducks suffered a 

 hunting mortality rate comparable to 

 that of most other species. 



How the wood duck ranks in pro- 

 ductivity with other species has at 

 present not been determined. There 

 can be little doubt that during the past 

 2 years in many sections of the United 



Table 13. — Number of wood ducks reported banded in North America, place of banding 



and per cent of bands reported recovered from banded birds shot or "found dead" 



within a year after being banded (first season returns). 



plete legal protection was given the 

 wood duck, one such duck was per- 

 mitted in the bag in 15 southern states. 

 The lower proportion killed in that year 

 may have been due to improved hunt- 

 ing conditions, causing more hunters to 

 pass up shots at wood ducks for the 

 larger ducks, or to some habitat con- 

 ditions — such as high water — which 

 favored a low wood duck kill. 



In 1942 and 1943, when one wood 

 duck could legally be taken in all 48 

 states, the ratio of first year band re- 

 turns to wood ducks banded over the 

 nation rose to 5.4 per cent. This would 

 lindicate about two-thirds greater kill 

 jin those years than when the species 

 iwas given complete legal protection. 

 I Has the increased kill resulting from 

 the one wood duck law been too high? 

 Only time and an adequate check on 

 the wood duck population status will 

 'provide this answer, but we can com- 

 pare the relative take of these ducks at 

 jpresent with that of other species. 



States wood duck mortality from all 

 causes exceeded productivity. 



In the Illinois River valley, in sections 

 of the Mississippi River valley and in 

 parts of Maine, Arkansas, Iowa and 

 Missouri, wood duck productivity was 

 abnormally low in 1942 and 1943. 

 Floods, combined with excessive raccoon 

 predation, destroyed most of the nests 

 in the Illinois River bottomlands. Rac- 

 coons, and also squirrels, raided many 

 nests in the uplands. In Illinois, rac- 

 coons were more abundant m 1942 and 

 1943 than at any other time in the past 

 decade. 



The kill of wood ducks in 1942 and 

 1943, amounting as it did to proportions 

 as great or almost as great as the kill of 

 other species, indicates that this kill 

 may be a serious threat to the species 

 if its reproduction rate is low. A close 

 watch on the population should be 

 maintained, and, if a decline continues, 

 the species should either be placed under 

 complete protection or the hunting 



