The decaying wings of game birds smell far higher than the flights they once took.
But odor or not, 30 wildlife workers from across Canada flocked together in a nine-by-nine metre room last week to analyze the piles of decaying flesh and feathers.
Wings of Black ducks from the East, Mallards from the West, Teals, Woods, Ring-necked and Barrow’s Golden Eye ducks, woodcocks and the tail feathers of geese, they all form the basis for Canada’s annual Wingbee which produces the best migratory bird database in the world.
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As Canadian hunters’ guns fall silent each winter, the mail boxes at Environment Canada fill with the wings of ducks and tail feathers of geese, from 19,000 birds bagged during the fall migration south. Hunters supply the bird parts along with details of the kill on brown paper envelopes that become home to the last flight for these feathers.
Wildlife biologists from across the country and volunteers from other wildlife agencies, along with college students and their instructors, gather in a different city each year, this year Saskatoon, to measure, sex, analyze and capture the DNA of the waterfowl.
“You can see this Black duck is hybridized with a Mallard – this band of lighter feathers here,” said Myrtle Bateman, of the Canadian Wildlife Service from Sackville, N.B
“We can tell a lot by the wings. Age, sex, size and other elements are all recorded. From these pieces we get a picture of a whole group.”
The information is assembled in a computer database that assists Environment Canada in deciding issues from bag limits and hunting season dates to whether disease or predatory problems might be occurring.
When combined with breeding and wintering ground surveys, biologists can predict trends in populations needed for bird management decisions.
Back again
Paul Pryor, of the wildlife service in Edmonton, has returned every year since the project began in 1968.
He knows the importance of a system that can tell biologists details about migratory game birds they would have no other way of knowing.
“Information is what we make decisions with and this is a great source of information,” he said.
Added another biologist who wished to remain nameless: “You get used to the smell. All these wildlife biologists in the same room together for a week. Oh, the wings. They aren’t too bad after the first day. You get used to it. It’s worth it.”
