Results of mail-card surveys of registered shotgun owners in the Northern Territory during 1984 and 1985 are
reported. Responses were used to generate estimates of seasonal and daily bags of waterfowl, the level of
hunter activity, and a crude estimate of hunter numbers. In 1984 the mean seasonal bag was 73.2 birds taken
over 10.3 hunter-days, which fell to 21.4 birds taken in 6.3 hunter-days during the 1985 season. The magpie
goose was taken most frequently, constituting 84% of 1984 and 79% of 1985 bags. Hunting activity was
concentrated in the Darwin area at small, readily accessible sites. Estimates of total seasonal harvests are
derived to provide an indication of the scale of hunting mortality. All estimates are based on relatively low
returns and improved targeting of surveys is desirable to increase sample size and reliability.
Conservation of Australia's Forest Fauna should provide a jolt to both the thought police and the development whisperers. Lunney's editing has elegantly exposed the astounding lack of basic knowledge of our forest fauna and the consequences of poorly researched management decisions.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.