Duck numbers burgeon, but weather, habitat will determine hunter
success JEFFERSON CITY–The number of breeding ducks surpassed
all previous records this year, setting the stage for a
bountiful harvest. All Missouri hunters need now is the right
weather to push ducks into the Show-Me State and keep them here.
This year’s North American breeding-duck population was
estimated at 45.6 million. That is 35 percent above the long-
term average. This was only the fifth time in the survey’s
history that the total duck population exceeded 40 million. In
fact, this year’s breeding-duck population was the largest ever
recorded since federal officials began counting waterfowl in
1955. Missouri’s most popular waterfowl species, the mallard,
went to the nesting grounds with 9.2 million individual ducks
last spring. Nearly as numerous were blue-winged teal, which
entered the breeding season with 8.9 million ducks, up 91
percent from the long-term average. The northern shoveler was
the next-most-numerous duck species, with 4.4