For decades, hunters and animal welfare activists in Victoria have been locked in a bitter and polarising battle over whether native game bird hunting is a sustainable way of killing your own food or a barbaric blood sport.
For hunters in Victoria, duck hunting is facing one of its greatest challenges ever.In the law’s sights
But it stresses that 8am is the law and – like the daily limit of four birds that each hunter can harvest and recent prohibition on hunting Blue-winged Shoveler and Hardhead ducks – must be obeyed. One decoy has its bum in the air, another is battery-operated, its spinning wing splashing the water, which is particularly useful for luring wild ducks on a still day.
But every year injured ducks escape into dense reeds, and while hunters often use dogs to retrieve them, others are not found or abandoned.says many of these will suffer a slow, painful death due to starvation, being eaten by predators, infection or exposure. “All stakeholders acknowledge the need to reduce wounding rates from duck and stubble quail hunting,” a Game Management Authority spokesman said.
But of course not every hunter is ethical. During the 2022 duck hunting season the Game Management Authority foundThese included hunting without a game licence, entering a wetland without authorisation, littering, possession of toxic shot and exceeding the daily limit of ducks that can be hunted. The sun has risen over the water and the early flurry of activity has been replaced by a long lull. We already have three ducks – two Pacific blacks and a grey teal – and call it a day.Back at the Connewarre Wetland Centre, Trent Leen, the conservation officer of Geelong Field and Game, deftly plucks the ducks, revealing shiny dark pink breast meat.
It’s used by Deakin University, which swabs birds as part of its research into avian influenza, by Field and Game Australia, which researches the use of nesting boxes to regenerate duck populations, and by school groups and birdwatching clubs.
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