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Learn more about the Pintail Initiative, Alberta and Saskatchewan (PDF, 243 KB)
Related Links
- Help put an end to the plight of the pintail, with your donation to our Wetlands for Tomorrow fundraising campaign.
- DU Canada’s Pintail Initiative
- Pintail Decline in Canadian Prairie Landscapes: A DUC research project
Pages in this Article
- Canadian priorities for wetland and wildlife conservation programs
- Georgia Basin, British Columbia
- Fraser River Plateau and Columbia River Basin, British Columbia
- Missouri Coteau, Saskatchewan
- Parkland Ecoregion
- Boreal Forest of Canada
- Pintail Initiative, Alberta and Saskatchewan
- Great Lakes Basin, Ontario
- St. Lawrence Valley, Ontario and Quebec
- Atlantic Coastal Region, Maritime Provinces
Pintail Initiative, Alberta and Saskatchewan
Lost habitats have left North America’s pintail population teetering on the edge, struggling to recover. DUC is focusing efforts on the critical grasslands in Alberta and Saskatchewan to restore and support continental pintail populations over the long-term.
0f special interest to DUC in the Prairie Region has been the plight of the northern pintail. As recently as the mid-1970s, 60 per cent or more of the North American population of this sleek, majestic bird settled in the southern Canadian prairies.
However, extensive habitat loss has since contributed to a sharp decline in the number of pintails. It is estimated that their numbers have dropped from more than 10 million breeding birds to as few as two million in recent years—a staggering 83 per cent decline!
The pintail’s plight is a concern that stretches across North America. Habitat loss across the breeding grounds of the southern Canadian prairies is a contributing factor. Crucial habitat is rapidly being plowed under and some farming practices destroy pintail nests before the eggs have a chance to hatch. Similar problems exist in the pintail’s wintering grounds in California and along the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Texas.
DUC will continue to focus efforts on the critical grasslands in Alberta and Saskatchewan to achieve habitat conditions capable of restoring and supporting pintail populations over the long-term. Our U.S. partner, DU, Inc., will also be investing more than $25 million to restore and conserve critical pintail habitat. But this is all for naught without conservation of breeding habitat.
Extensive habitat analysis by DUC scientists has identified where habitat conservation and agricultural activity change will have the greatest impact. DUC will partner with farmers and ranchers, corporations, foundations, provincial conservation agencies and other conservation organizations to restore and protect key pintail habitats over the next six years.
Wetlands for Tomorrow
Wetlands for Tomorrow is a fundraising initiative of Ducks Unlimited Canada. Your investment can help save our wetlands for tomorrow - today.
