Projects

Northern pintail ducks

Unlike our other focal species, a governance system that recognizes the telecoupled relationships between breeding and wintering pintail habitat already exists for waterfowl. Significant funds are generated for pintail habitat conservation in the US, Mexico, and Canada through the sale of Duck Stamps and taxes on firearms and ammunition in the US.

Pintails migrate between summer breeding habitat in Alaska, Yukon, Northern Territories, and the Prarie Pothole Region, and winter habitat in California, the southern states of the US, and Mexico. Among ecosystem values that pintails provide are recreational hunting and wildlife viewing by birdwatchers and ecotourists, as well as subsistence hunting and cultural values for Indigenous groups.

Our research shows that breeding habitat in the Prairie Pothole Region, and in Alaska and northern Canada, provides a net spatial subsidy to hunters and birdwatchers in wintering regions, especially California.