Original story published by Shreveport Times. 

A popular game bird for Louisiana hunters, the mottled duck, is at risk of becoming threatened, according to Audubon Louisiana, and hunting has nothing to do with the problem.

The mottled duck is listed as a priority bird on the organization’s website. Eric Johnson, director of bird conservation for Audubon Louisiana, explains that birds are priority listed if they are in danger of becoming threatened or endangered due to declining habitat in southern Louisiana marshes.

These ducks need low salinity water to successfully nest and raise their young, says Johnson, but due to saltwater intrusion and the decline of the state's coastal marshes as a whole, suitable nesting areas are slowly disappearing.

Compounding this issue is the fact the duck has a range limited to the Gulf Coast from Northeast Mexico to Florida.

Johnson notes that hunting has not had a significant negative impact on the bird’s population because harvest limits are well regulated and tracked by state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries biologists.

The biggest threat to any bird, says Johnson, are those that threaten nests. “Nest success can be essential to the success of the species.”

Currently under Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries regulations the bag limit on mottled ducks is one per person per trip out of a total of six ducks a hunter legally can take per day. It is possible for hunter to take six ducks in a combination that does include any mottled ducks.Louisiana is not the only place where the mottled duck is at risk. However, in Texas biologists have had some success in protecting the bird with habitat conservation and restoration efforts. Populations are also declining in Florida, and potentially elsewhere, as a result of hybridization with domesticated and feral mallards that are or were kept as pets which escaped. Feral mallards are close to the mottled duck biologically and can mate, creating hybrid offspring.According to Johnson, this hybridization reduces the purity of the genetic pool of mottled ducks.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature, which identifies threatened or endangered animals, lists the mottled duck as “least concerned.”

Johnson counters there are multiple birds on the Audubon Louisiana’s list of priority birds classified as “least concerned,” but that there are also some that the IUCN considers threatened or endangered.

This is because Audubon Louisiana’s priority bird list shows which birds are threatened due to loss of habitat. The birds may have a sizeable population, but have begun to experience rapid decline and will continue to if something is not done about the threat of habitat loss.

Hunters who wish to help can support local, state, and federal wetland restoration funding programs which contribute to coastal wetland restoration. That, in turn, benefits not only mottled ducks but a number of additional game and non-game species of conservation concern.