2020-2021 Illinois Waterfowl Hunter Report: Harvest, Youth Hunts, and Season Preferences

A total of 1,805 (37% response rate) Illinois waterfowl hunters returned usable questionnaires to the 2020-21 Illinois Waterfowl Hunter Survey. An estimated 39,525 adult waterfowl hunters spent 1 day or more afield during 2020-21, an increase of 12.3% from 35,185 hunters during the 2019-20 seasons....

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Walberg, Eric. M, Miller, Craig A., Stephens, Lauren J., Williams, Brent D.
Format: Report
Language:English
Published: Illinois Natural History Survey 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/2142/113460
Description
Summary:A total of 1,805 (37% response rate) Illinois waterfowl hunters returned usable questionnaires to the 2020-21 Illinois Waterfowl Hunter Survey. An estimated 39,525 adult waterfowl hunters spent 1 day or more afield during 2020-21, an increase of 12.3% from 35,185 hunters during the 2019-20 seasons. Waterfowl hunters spent 837,609 days afield, a decrease of 0.1% from the 841,828 days devoted during the 2019-20 license year. Total estimated waterfowl harvest decreased 13.9%, from 471,872 during 2019-20 seasons to 406,259 during 2020-21. Duck harvest estimates for the regular duck season were as follows: 127,525 mallards (Anas platyrhynchos), 35,335 wood ducks (Aix sponsa), and 88,081 other ducks. A total of 18,967 teal (Anas spp.) were harvested during the September teal season. Goose hunters harvested 94,510 Canada geese (Branta canadensis) during the regular Canada goose season, a 10.9% increase from the 85,188 Canada geese harvested during the 2019-20 regular goose season. Hunters harvested 16,811 Canada geese during the September Canada goose season, a 9.0% increase from the previous year. During the Youth Waterfowl Hunting Season, 5,029 adults took 6,950 youths waterfowl hunting, a 24.5% increase in adult participation and a 53.5% increase in youth participation from the 2019-20 Youth Waterfowl Hunting Season. Hunter preferences for seasons and satisfaction with the waterfowl seasons are also discussed. not peer reviewed Open Restriction set for Item 122817 on 2022-02-15T19:52:00Z with date null by braxton@illinois.edu. Submitted by Susan Braxton (braxton@illinois.edu) on 2022-02-15T20:03:42Z No. of bitstreams: 1 INHS2022_09.pdf: 4979878 bytes, checksum: 3a1fee612f25d3f5dbc52bc7d593e5de (MD5) Made available in DSpace on 2022-02-15T20:03:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 INHS2022_09.pdf: 4979878 bytes, checksum: 3a1fee612f25d3f5dbc52bc7d593e5de (MD5) Previous issue date: 202-11-10 Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service W-112-R unpublished Open