A. Species
Scientific name: Anas platyrhynchos
Common name(s): Mallard Duck
Global IUCN Red List Threat Status: Least Concern
B. Location of use
Geographic location(s):
- Great Britain
Country/Region: United Kingdom
C. Scale of assessment
Scale of assessment: National Level
Name/Details of location: United Kingdom
D. Timescale of use
Start Year: 2008
End Year: 2018
E. Information about the use
How is the wild species sourced?: Wild species sourced from its natural habitat
Type of use: Extractive
Practice of use: Hunting and/or Trapping of live terrestrial and aerial animals
Lethal or non-lethal: Lethal
Does this use involve take/extraction of: The whole entire organism
Purpose(s) of end use: Food and feed, Ceremony and ritual expression and Recreation
Motivation of use: Income generation from trade (individual/household/community), Recreational, Traditional/Cultural/Spiritual and Population/Area Management
Is this use legal or illegal?: Legal under national law
F. Information about the Users
Which stakeholder(s) does the record primarily focus on?: Local people, National / local private sector and International external
G. Information about the sustainability of use
Is there evidence that the use is having an impact on the target species?: Wild species sourced from its natural habitat
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an ecological perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered unsustainable
Details of assessment carried out: The study used a Demographic Invariant Method (DIM) to estimate Potential Excess Growth (PEG) for populations of UK wintering waterbirds and calculated a Sustainable Harvest Index (SHI) for each species. It compared this with population trends and conservation classifications (e.g. Birds of Conservation Concern; BoCC) to assess the sustainability of harvests and the utility of these classifications.
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: The study found no relationship between SHI and short-term wintering trends or conservation classification under the UK’s BoCC framework. There was however a positive relationship between SHI and long-term wintering trends. However, the study also found evidence for potential overharvest of mallard Anas platyrhynchos, Eurasian teal Anas crecca, gadwall Mareca strepera, Canada geese Branta canadensis, greylag geese Anser anser and woodcock Scolopax rusticola. Whether DIM methods predict overharvest is highly dependent on estimates of maximum population growth rates inferring PEG.
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an economic perspective been recorded?: No, sustainability not determined
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from a social perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered unsustainable
Details of assessment carried out: this study
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: The BASC has approximately 8,000 wildfowling members, who harvest an average of 8 birds each per season. This presents a major component of the UK's recreational hunting and fishing industry.
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from a human health perspective been recorded?: No, sustainability not determined
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an animal health/welfare perspective been recorded?: No, sustainability not determined
Recommendations provided in the record to maintain or enhance the sustainability of the use of the target species
There is currently no clear policy instrument in the UK to support such a framework via controls on either harvest effort or mortality of waterfowl. The study states that its results suggest that UK based harvest is unlikely to be a major determinant of population trends for the majority of UK overwintering waterbirds, but harvest rates for some species may exceed that required to maintain stationary population growth. The lack of a relationship between conservation classifications and SHI strongly suggests that such conservation classifications are not an appropriate tool for making decisions about harvest management. Instead, this assessment provides the basis for a framework to make evidence-based decisions on sustainable harvest levels in the face of incomplete data. T
Record source
Information about the record source: scientific_pub
Date of publication/issue/production: 2022-01-01T00:00:00+0000
Source Reference(s):
Date of record entry: 2022-11-15