According to stats personnsl, thers are 47,000 square miles of this typs 
of habltat with much of it waat of ths Missouri River. With an average of 4.5 
ducks per square mile this would indicate a breeding population of over L/4 
Million ducks--in an eres which was previously thought to b= net worth the 
bother. 
Tt is also interesting to note that west of the Missouri River with an 
averags of 3.4 water arsa per square mil? aver 50 peresat ara man-made and 
47.1 peresant of thes mal-made areas are oceupiad by waterfowl. 
SAU Tyr 
1. Nins census routes were covered agéin this ysar, routes } through 
5 for the fourth spring and routes 6 through 9 for the sstond spring. This 
ia a total distance of 1076.5 miles and 9 coverages of 269.4 square miles, 
2. All routes sxespt route 6 showed an increase over 1948. Ths total 
averags increases was from 24,4 ducks por square mile in 1948 to 35.4 ducks: 
per square mils io 1949--an incresass of aporeximately 45 parcsnt. 
3, The largest intrsase was recorded for the blus-winged teal and mallerd 
which haves ineresased almost in a straight line relationship for the past two 
Years. Soma spacias--ths pintsail, shoveler, redhead, and canvasback--are show- 
ing a tendency to follow 4 sigmoid curys which may indicate that a general 
leveling off of the waterfowl population might occur in the next several years. 
4. All dabbling ducks shawad gome inersass with ths sxcaption af the 
baldpate. AL] divers showsd soms increass *xcept ths canrasback, 
5. Water condtions, while oct as favorehle as Last yaar, wars, nevar- 
theless, adequate. An over-all dacreass in water arsas occurriog on transects 
was 21 parecent., Ons area--ths Coteau arse in North Pakote--showed a 66 percent 
decrease in water arses and dropped to leas than 5 per aquars mils. This waa 
the only transect also showing «4 population decresasa, 
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