26,000 Victorians under threat of being cancelled

​the occurrence of recreational hunting of ducks and geese around the world.

Paul Brown
Former Associate Professor of Wetland Ecology at La Trobe University, now Principal and owner of Fisheries and Wetlands Consulting (est. 2018).

A grey teal comes in to a spread of decoy ducks in Victoria, Australia

 There is presently a highly polarized debate in Australia, or perhaps “slanging match” would be more accurate, about the recreational hunting of ducks. At either end of this spectrum, we have a minority of dedicated, passionate advocates who will continue to plead that their way is the right way forward. As minority politics in its various forms comes to the fore in Australia the balance of power to enact new legislation is often wielded by these minority advocates. In the preliminary debate, like in war, “the truth is often the first casualty”.  To use an appropriate analogy, in my home-state Victoria, the duck-hunting debate is merely a stalking-horse for the mythical parliamentary beast “the guarantee of supply”. (see here for definition and example).

Somewhat bizarrely, the Victorian Minister for Disability, Ageing and Carers, Lizzie Blandthorn quoted Pope John Paul II as she introduced a Bill (9 March 2023) in the Victorian State Parliament, to form an inquiry into Victoria’s recreational native bird hunting arrangements, while recently her own Dan Andrew’s (Labour) government ignored the science-based advice commissioned by their own Game Management Authority in declaring the arrangements for the impending 2023 duck hunting season. The select committee inquiry will examine “the operation of annual native bird hunting seasons, arrangements in other Australian jurisdictions, their environmental sustainability and impact on amenity and their social and economic impact”.  Meanwhile, ex-stripper/ topless dancer, and now Animal Justice Party MP, Miss Georgie Purcell has been named as a member of the select committee.  This could indeed be the ultimate in “fox-in-charge-of-the-hen house” situations.

Those opposed to duck hunting call it “barbaric”, “in-humane” amongst other descriptors and urge the undecided to ban duck hunting as an outdated practice that Australia should be ashamed of, etc., etc. As a professional wetland ecologist, and (cards on the table) a passionate duck hunter with long experience on both fronts in Australia and overseas, I’m sure there is merit in taking a step back from the ugly rhetoric around this debate, and rationally examining the practice and demographics of harvesting ducks as a recreation in a worldwide context. Is Australia really so outdated? What sort of countries do-or-don't permit duck hunting? Can duck hunting still be justified in modern society? Who else has banned duck hunting so far, and why? The facts I present below, will form the basis of my own submission to the select committee inquiry.

How do we find out what's "normal"? (To read the results, skip this paragraph)
I conducted a simple internet search for the presence or absence of hunting ‘regulations’ or ‘seasons’ which included species of ducks and geese, indexed for each country of the world (195 individual countries, www.worldometers.info/geography/alphabetical-list-of-countries/). I initially used the primary search term “duck hunting regulations” appended to each country name, with follow-up searches using “duck hunting season 2023”. In some cases, I had to resort to simplifying the search to “hunting regulations” for a country and then followed leads within those search results to try and find evidence of legal duck hunting. E.g., “Bird hunting”, “waterfowl hunting” “Goose hunting”, etc. Countries were then categorized geographically as: Europe, Asia, Middle east, Africa, North America, Central America or South America, with an additional category of small island states. Evidence was gathered simply for the presence or absence of legal hunting of ducks and geese in each country. While some countries like USA, and Australia manage wildlife with State-based legislation. I was able to determine if duck hunting was permitted somewhere within each country. I also determined the year-date for most recent evidence for each country. Most internet sources could be dated within the last 5-years. Hunting regulations of many countries were listed in summaries by Birdlife International (www.datazone.birdlife.org/home) and for European countries summaries were available at The European Federation for Hunting and Conservation (www.Face.eu). I also cross referenced this presence/absence information with population-size (in 2020), land area (km2) and population density (people/km2). In such a politicized debate, I also thought it appropriate to cross referenced with an index of democracy for each nation developed by the University of Wurzberg in Germany (www.democracymatrix.com/ranking). This index summarizes a matrix of core and context measurements of political rights, freedoms and abilities for the citizens of each country. The index ranges from “Hard autocracy” to “Working democracy” in four levels. I was also able to collate internet statistics on other social indices that impinge upon the argument, such as gun-ownership (worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/gun-ownership-by-country), the Freedom index— another summary of Civil liberties and Political freedoms (freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world) and the Animal Protection Index (www.worldanimalprotection.org), a composite of several animal welfare metrics. 

What IS the world's view of duck-hunting?
Firstly, of the six countries with the highest “Animal Protection Index” in the world; The United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark, The Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria, ALL those countries presently permit duck hunting and have a long and strong culture of duck hunting along with hunting for many other endemic and introduced fauna.  It will come as no surprise to most hunters that a country can have a good reputation for “animal rights” and still maintain a sustainable hunting culture for its endemic wildlife.
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​In fact, at least 52% of the world’s nations allow their citizens to hunt ducks, and only 23% of nations do not. Duck hunting is permitted on 64%, and not-permitted on 22% of the world’s land area. Some 36% of the world’s population live in countries where duck hunting is permitted, and 50% of the population live where duck hunting is no longer allowed. 

In 2023 in Australia, out of eight State or Territory jurisdictions, large-scale duck hunting presently occurs legally in five (63%) of jurisdictions. In South Australia, The Northern Territory, Victoria and Tasmania mainly through an annually regulated recreational hunting season, and in NSW through (arguably) a less well-regulated agricultural pest-control system where ducks are shot by recreational hunters, on private property, under license.  

Cross referencing the democracy index with my internet search of duck hunting shows that in the most strongly democratic nations of the world, duck hunting is still permitted. The average democracy index of Nations permitting duck hunting is 0.6. Whereas countries where duck hunting is not permitted only rate an average democracy index of 0.47. All nations with a democracy index >0.72 permit duck hunting except for three, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Costa Rica. The two Caribbean nations permit their citizens to hunt endemic pigeons and doves but not ducks, of which there are few. Costa Rica was one of the first nations to ban all hunting to aid the conservation of threatened big cats, duck hunting was included in that ban. On this scale Australia’s democracy index is presently 0.904, putting us firmly amongst nations where citizens have the right to hunt ducks.

100% of nations in North America and Australasia presently allow duck hunting along with 94% of European nations, 64% of Central American and 54% of South American Nations. Evidence could not be determined for 9% and 8% of Central and South American nations, respectively. In other regions of the world, it was more difficult to determine the legal status of duck hunting; however, 45% of African nations, 33% of Middle Eastern nations, 33% of Asian nations and 11% of small island states also permit their citizens to hunt ducks.

Countries have been classified with a composite index of “freedom” of their citizens based upon their political rights and civil liberties. Duck hunting is permitted in all the top-22 countries in the world ranked for their political rights and all of the top-17 countries ranked for their civil liberties. Of the countries classified as “Free”, presently 60% permit duck hunting. The figure is less— 50% for countries classed as “partly free” and reduces to 43% for those classed as “not free”.

Of the countries where duck hunting is forbidden, sometimes internet searching provided reasons why that was so, although such reasons were not sought, or verified beyond my initial search. Interestingly, no nations cited the conservation of endangered ducks or geese as reasons for the ceasing of hunting waterbirds. Reasons were as wide ranging as

• In many of the countries where duck hunting is banned it is illegal for private citizens to own guns and effectively there is no legal hunting of any sort,
• “all hunting was banned to protect big cats” (Costa Rica),
• the virtual absence of any ducks or geese within the fauna listed for the country (various small island states) and hence no “culture” of hunting them,
• in many less developed countries, particularly in Africa, evidence of legal big-game hunting was found, yet there was no mention of the legality of duck hunting. Web resources of the governments of these countries are often poorly developed, so identifying regulated duck hunting by web-search may be difficult, even if it occurs,
• …and there was even, “Moratorium due to volcanic eruption” (small island states - Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines).

While duck hunting is not surprisingly also correlated to the prevalence of gun ownership world-wide; there is nuance, even here. While all nations with over 19.6 guns per 100 people permit duck hunting, many countries where gun ownership is rare or difficult also still permit duck hunting. Nine nations out of fifteen where gun ownership is less than 1 per 100 people also permit duck hunting. FYI: There are approximately 14.5 guns per 100 people in Australia. That’s about half that of countries such as New Zealand, Norway and Austria, where the culture of duck hunting is strong.

Wild duck is a highly valued food source by world standards. A simple “Google” search of the term wild duck recipe produces 23.5 Million hits, almost one-per person for the entire Australian population (26 Million).

Yes, it is plain to see for those who look, all around the world duck hunting is still very much a normal part of the human relationship with nature—even in countries with the highest animal-protection index.  Duck hunters are some of the most passionate advocates for wetlands and waterbirds anywhere in the world, and Australian duck hunters are no exception. Yes, they also harvest a small proportion of the abundant ducks and geese that rely on these habitats, and yes, they clearly enjoy doing that – which isn’t everyone’s “cup of tea”. No doubt their passion and advocacy would soon wither and disappear if they were banned from doing what they love. Who then will take up the cause, to steward and protect water resources and biodiversity around wetlands. Who will pay the cost of the 100,000’s of hours of work that is now freely volunteered for wetland management and species conservation by duck hunters. You can bet that the minority “green” politicians won’t. Their only “sport” is wedge-politics. They will have moved on to the next stalking horse.
​Let’s hope it’s not your lifestyle that’s cancelled next. 

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Wild duck is a highly valued and popular food source worldwide