Southern Alberta's duck population is under threat as the province's wetlands face extinction.
The report was released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Ducks Unlimited scientists say they have been aware of the threat to the wetlands for the past decade.
Global warming, increasingly dry seasons and agricultural drainage -- the No. 1 threat to Canadian wetlands -- have all contributed to a dire future for ducks in Alberta, say the experts.
Mike Anderson, Canadian director of Ducks Unlimited's research arm, the Institute for Wetland and Waterfowl Research, said global warming would have an extensive impact on wetlands.
"Although there is uncertainty associated with any single climate projection, it is clear that global warming will have an impact on wetlands and waterfowl in the Prairies, likely reducing ... the size of the duck population that breeds there," he said.
But it's the combination of factors that's to blame for the duck population's demise, says Dawna McKibbon, speaking for the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary.
"Their suffering is part of the bigger picture of how we're treating our environment.
"The duck population is indicating that we are unhealthy overall," she said.
McKibbon said the birds will be forced to migrate farther than they normally would in the search for water.
Higher concentrations of ducks could put populations at risk as outbreaks of disease have a better chance of spreading rapidly, she said.
Anderson said that during the past 100 years, 70 per cent of prairie wetlands have disappeared.
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