With respect to the local effects of the special teal season, 
the greatest potential danger is in the North Central States where 
the birds breed. In the tri-state area of North Dakota, South Dakota 
and Minnesota, the total kill of bluewings during the experimental 
season was 232,906. In this same area, we estimated a 1964 fall 
flight of 3,838,700 birds. Thus, the total kill in these three 
States during the September season represents 5 to 6 percent of the 
fall flight. The effect of the large kill on local populations in 
Minnesota was probably greater than elsewhere, but, because these 
birds were probably mixed with migrants from other areas, it is diffi¬ 
cult to assess the degree of this effect until data from breeding 
population surveys and banding are available. 
The total rate of hunting kill, or percent of the population 
dying as a direct result of hunting, should also be compared to 
estimated annual mortality rates to determine the proportion of 
total annual deaths that were caused by hunting in 1965-66. Average 
annual mortality rates for blue-winged teal have been presented by 
R. I. Smith and A. D. Geis (Blue-winged Teal Band Recovery and 
Mortality Rates, Administrative Report No. 18) and F. C. Bellrose 
and Elizabeth B. Chase (Population Losses in the Mallard, Black Duck, 
and Blue-winged Teal, Illinois Natural History Survey Biological Notes 
No. 22). Smith and Geis estimated average annual mortality rates for 
adult males banded during the summer in the Prairie Provinces at 
about 42 percent; those of adult males in the Dakotas and Minnesota 
at about 49 percent. For adult females, the average annual mortality 
rate was about 53 percent for Prairie Province birds and about 58 
percent for birds from the Dakotas and Minnesota. They estimated 
average annual mortality rates for immature blue-winged teal at about 
72 percent for Prairie Province birds and 78 percent for those reared 
in the Dakotas and Minnesota. Bellrose and Chase provided an* estimate 
of average annual mortality among blue-winged teal of 57 percent (all 
age and sex groups combined). When these average annual mortality 
rates are compared with the rate of total hunting kill (7 percent) 
during the experimental season and during the combined hunting seasons 
in 1965-66, it is apparent that hunting in the United States accounted 
for only a small percent of the total deaths. 
The kill of green-winged teal during the 1965 experimental 
September teal hunting season was very low in relation to the average 
kill taken in previous years. In fact, it was less than a third the 
size of the average 1960-64 Central Flyway kill. During the 1950*s, 
an estimated kill rate on green-winged teal was about 16 percent and 
that during the 1960*s, when quite restrictive hunting regulations 
were in effect, it was about 11 percent. Considered continent-wide, 
the special season kill of greenwings was only about 1 percent of the 
estimated 1965 fall flight. The estimate of kill during the 1965-66 
regular waterfowl hunting season added to the kill taken during the 
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