Recruitment

Stands for two things in duck parlance (as far as I'm concerned):

1. The ability of ducks to generate more ducks via breeding
2. Bringing new people into the sport.

Both are fraught with dangers and difficulties. It can't be easy being a duck, but then again it's not all a bad scene either, depending on what kind of duck you are. If you are a NZ Shoveler, you move around a lot, you stay away from where people commonly hang out, and you make the most of whatever back water that you find along the way. Because you are blessed with second sight, you are able to predict just where you should be to make the most of conditions, just at the right time. You change moulting sites. You travel many kms in a single night. You are an enigma and as a result you get more protection, good luck to you. 3 out of 5 people can't identify you in flight. Even more luck to you.

If you're a Mallard, you really want to be a drake. You're a fat, devious greedy rapist. A pack rapist at that. Your genes will be passed on whether Henny wants then or not. You're succesful and smart, well sort of. You can live near people by day and in swamps by night. You learn to avoid danger signs. You are a prolific spawner, even so you need the right conditions for all your hard work to be fruitful. If you're a hen, well, you get to be chased down by groups of males, molested until you're half drowned and then do the whole nesting/parenting thing mainly on your own while the boys all get together. But you do most of the talking and often lead the flights so its fair to say that you got the smarts while he got the looks.

If you're a Grey well, according to DOC you're an endangered species. You're interbred and pure strains are becoming less frequent. Boys and girls look alike. You're a timid, quiet wee birdy and don't like lots of company on the whole. You get by by being where people are not and your future is in the hands of people.

If you're a parry, you're not a duck so go away.

The question of bringing newbies into the sport is a question without a clear answer. The whole thing is normally passed down father to kid(s) but even strong hunting lines get broken. My uncle, brother, cousin (Mark) are examples of progeny from strong hunting lines that just haven't taken to the whole thing with rabid abandon. Life was on a different path (professionally and domestically) for them. And this has to be happening all over. Duck hunting seems to be like rugby, once a huge, well respected passtime, now with recruitment dwindling. 35,000 hunters every year buy a license. That number has been the same (or bigger) for ever. Because more and more shooters hunt near us than ever before, it is fair to say that the 35,000 have less places to go, especially near the big urban areas. Ergo, habitat loss is knocking back the hunters, as well as the hunted.

Time to take another kid hunting methinks.