Arkansas duck population hits record low in slow hunting season
STUTTGART, Ark. – The second half of Arkansas duck season opened up Wednesday and will run until January 31, but so far hunters are saying it’s not all it’s quacked up to be.
New numbers show fewer ducks are in the state than there have been for over a decade.
The mallard population was already historically low. At their breeding grounds near the Canadian border, they estimated slightly over six million ducks. That’s the lowest estimate since 1993.
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From December 4-11, biologists with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC) conducted transect-based surveys over the Delta, the Arkansas River Valley, and southwest Arkansas.
In the Delta estimated 449,860 total ducks, 79,365 of which were mallards. The Delta mallard population estimate was roughly 250,000 ducks below the 2009-2023 long-term December average and the lowest December estimate since the inception of transect-based surveys in 2009.
Total duck population estimates were also at an all-time low. That’s reflective of Darryl Griffin’s experience.
“It is a gamble I mean you don’t know if they’ll be here or not,” Griffin said.
He already came from South Carolina on an Arkansas lease at the beginning of the season. However, no one in his group couldn’t fill their daily limit of 36 birds on any day.
“24 total in four days, and that was six of us hunting, so it wasn’t good,” Griffin said.
He’s hoping for a better outing this week. Trey Reid with AGFC said Arkansas could have a larger share of the migratory birds if the conditions were right.
“We could use a lot more rain and continued cold weather,” Reid said.
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Reid said perfect conditions would consist of northern states being covered with snow and ice North of Arkansas. Meanwhile, the Natural State has rain to accommodate them.
Instead, it has been warm nationwide the past couple of months, and the Delta has been in an extreme drought.
“Mallards they are going to as far as they have to get food, and if their food resources are still available, they’re not coming,” Reed expressed.
Chuck Lock, co-owner of Mack’s Prairie Wings, a premier waterfowl outfitter in Stuttgart said even with the number of ducks down, people are still flocking to his shop.
“A slow day here is still better than the best day they’ve ever had at home,” Lock said.
However, he knows things could be better.
“I would take five inches of rain in a heartbeat. If we can get some weather, we’ll have a good next 30 days,” Lock stated
Hunters like Griffin said they do not have much choice on where to go currently with northern duck seasons already closing. He just wishes the ducks would turn tail feathers in time for him to bag his limit.
“This freeze that just came in pushed them back into Missouri, so you just have to keep watching the weather,” Griffin concluded.
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This December is Arkansas’s 11th driest on record. Duck hunting season ends January 31.
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